


Possession

by OverlordRaax



Category: Transformers - All Media Types, Transformers Generation One
Genre: Canon-Typical Violence, M/M, Pre-War, Self-possession, Starscream being Starscream, Starscream's Ghost, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix-It, Time Travel Fuck-It-Up-Again, robot romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-08
Updated: 2018-07-20
Packaged: 2019-05-19 21:33:36
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 8
Words: 23,538
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14881605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OverlordRaax/pseuds/OverlordRaax
Summary: When Starscream's ghost ends up in the past he decides he's going to change his future for the better. This time no one is going to stop him from achieving his dreams and taking his rightful place in the universe, not even himself.





	1. The Chronosphere

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> EDIT: There were a bunch of italics I failed to realise were missing when I converted the text to html (like a fool) for Starscream's inner monologue segments. It's fixed now.

Starscream hated being dead.

It was immensely frustrating. Somehow, even after being shot by Galvatron’s cannon he had survived. Or at least, his spark had. He had no body or frame of his own, he couldn’t interact with anything physically unless he possessed it. So mostly he was stuck wandering through space as a disembodied spark.

As far as eternal damnations went, he hadn’t been expecting Primus to choose ‘eternal boredom’ for him. Unable to do anything, unable to feel anything, just forever stuck as he was. The vastness of space was quite boring when you couldn’t do anything in it. He was starting to worry this was how things were going to be forever now.

He wondered if this was some last bit of revenge against him by Megatron. After all, he had been responsible for his death, and he probably would have enjoyed the idea of Starscream suffering eternally stuck like this. At this point, the only thing that kept him going was the desire to find a way to enact his revenge.

Unfortunately, like this, it hadn’t been going well. He’d made one attempt at possessing Galvatron’s henchmen, but since then he’d lost his host and been forced to sail through space. Thanks to this he now had plenty of time to reflect on everything that had gone wrong in his life, which unfortunately was a lot. The more he thought about it, the more it felt like life had it out for him since the start.

In his youth, he had met nothing but prejudice as he tried to do more outside his assigned role as a warbuild and become a scientist. He’d been met only with mockery and derision by everyone, except the one person he cared about… the only other mech in the academy that was a flight frame like him. The person he loved more deeply in the world than anyone. Someone he then lost in the ice of a stupid backwater planet. After that, he’d been thrown out of the science academy and joined the Decepticons to get his revenge. Only to be trodden under heel by Megatron for years, when it should have been HIM! Him leading the Decepticon army to their full potential! And then when he had finally achieved his goal, had overthrown Megatron and gotten his wish… he had been killed. Every single turn in his life had been met with failure and humiliation.

He had deserved better. Life had decided to continually beat him down. Even when it had presented him with a small glimpse of happiness it had then conspired the whole time to wrench it from his grasp.

If he had the chance, he would do it all differently. If he could start over again knowing everything he did now he would carve out a much better life for himself.

If only…

It was then he noticed a planet off in the horizon, he didn’t know why, but something beckoned him to it. So his spark headed forward.

-

The planet was clearly a former Cybertronian outpost, with technology from long, long before the war even. All of it too far back for Starscream to tell when it could have been made. All of it was ancient and crumbling, there were once grand and golden spires making up the intricate cities of this planet, but now it was all falling apart.

Terrible winds buffeted the planet, eroding the buildings away further still. The winds managed to topple over one giant statue that had clearly been eroded piece by piece under its supports and just could not hold it anymore. Time had done its job with this place.

Starscream didn’t feel any of the winds as he arrived, though. He felt nothing. The cold vacuum of space felt no different to him than the searing heat of a volcano planet. Sometimes he longed for a body just to feel again.

He wandered about the planets surface though, wondering precisely what had drawn him here. Maybe it was just the boredom of looking at nothing all day. At least it was a change of scenery.

Still, it felt like there was more to this place than met the eye. The buildings were long desolate and useless, but he could see that the buildings gave way underneath to start forming tunnels and caverns, untouched by the winds. Something was down there, so he went to take a look.

He wandered through long twists of metal openings that would have once been hallways, roads, and corridors, but were now all completely empty. Down here the metal was more intact, and as he went deeper into the structure, he could see more glimpses of technology.

He didn’t know enough about ancient Cybertronian technology to tell exactly what everything was, but he had seen some of these things before, during some of the expeditions Megatron had ordered him to undertake in order to find forgotten weapons they could use to help destroy the Autobots.

Then he heard a set of voices, Cybertronian ones. He came closer, knowing he wouldn’t be seen or even noticed by anyone if he so wished and he endeavoured to find the source of the noise.

There were three Cybertronians sitting down in one of the tunnelways. Two very small ones and a larger mech. They were all only lit by a couple of lamps they had taken with them. The two much smaller frames spoke to each other, talking over a large datapad they were both scribbling on, while the large mech sat cross-legged, simply observing. None of them had any sigils on their plating, so they were neutrals. Starscream felt a disdain rising for them already. The large one was clearly some sort of space shuttle. He was similar in build to Skyfire, with a large set of wings on his back along with his engines. This one had clearly been built for the sole purpose of space travel, though. A visor and faceguard covered his face. He sat quietly and didn’t say anything, unlike the others. Starscream looked and tried to gauge if they were grounders. He didn’t see any wheels on their backs. They didn’t look like they were vehicles; both of them were much too small and fragile looking. They had spindly arms and legs and were clearly not built for combat. One of them had a large pack on his back, clearly filled with all sorts of different equipment. He could see bits of measuring equipment and glass test tubes hanging from it. He wore a large set of optical enhancers. The other one had a fat chest unit that was clearly meant for storing things and had a set of grabbing claws for his hands.

Science frames. Starscream realized, his disdain for them increased. He hated science frames. They looked precisely like the type that had mocked him throughout the entire time he had been at the scientific academy. Those types of mechs were always so smug and self-righteous. Starscream had enjoyed the number he had killed when he helped burn Iacon Academy to the ground. Still though, for now, they could be useful. So he stayed silent and observed them as they were speaking.

“We’ve searched all of the eastern caverns, so the question is where to go from here, north or south?” the first one said, pointing to the data pad. “I think north is where the old capital was located. I think that’s where we’ll make the most interesting discoveries.”

“I think we should finish writing down all the data we have before we press on to explore anything else. I still haven’t been able to date some of the samples we have found,” the second one said.

“We can date sedimentary samples later, Stonebolt. I’m convinced there’s something really important beyond that broken blast door. I’m sure of it. We could be on the verge of uncovering some of the most amazing secrets from Cybertron’s history. Imagine what that’ll be like.”

Starscream listened and watched. The two of them were revising a hand-drawn map of the caverns on a datapad, marking bits they’d decided were of archaeological importance. Starscream read through their notes but saw nothing of interest. He saw that there was a scribble he assumed marked where the first mech had been talking about the blast door. He wondered what could be there.

The shuttle sat beside them, not saying anything as he watched them with apparently never-ending patience. His visor glowed pleasantly.

“Well, you can go through the samples we’ve already collected, and Startracker and I will go and investigate the north area,” the first mech suggested.

“Hmm, alright then,” Stonebolt said. “Be careful, Chiselpick.”

“Will do,” Chiselpick replied, standing up. “Startracker, follow me.”

The shuttle stood up without saying a word and obeyed. Starscream followed alongside them both. They eventually reached a place where there had clearly been a cave-in at one point. Rocks and debris covered a giant broken door that was made of several miles of thick metal.

“Startracker! Clear the way forward!” the science bot shouted excitedly. The shuttle wordlessly got to the task, picking up the heavy amounts of rock and moving them out the way. Starscream watched the science bot with a sense of disdain, seeing it treat a flyer as only a piece of equipment to be used. Like he’d seen so many of his fellow mechs do to Skyfire.

He only observed for the moment, though, waiting until he knew what best to do. After they cleared the way, Chiselpick led the way inside the room. Starscream came along with them. He looked around the vast room and then stopped as he recognized a device he had seen before: a strange old platform with a control panel that marked its measurements not in terms of energy or output, but in terms of years and dates.

This was a Chronosphere.

Starscream moved towards it, examining the grand device. He had only seen it once before. The Decepticons had used it in a scheme to try and strand the Aerialbots at the beginning of time. It hadn’t worked, but he knew this device was capable of time travel.

A chill went through his spark as he realized what was before him. This might be just the thing he’d need. If he could gain control of the device, he could do anything. He could go back in time and change the past. Change everything. Glory, power, control, it could all be his.

If only he had a body…

He turned to the science frame. He was looking at the Chronosphere but was confused by the machine. That stupid idiot had no idea what this device was. It was almost too perfect.

Starscream took his chance, stepping into the science frame’s body. He felt a surge as he began to override the bot’s systems, taking full control away from him. The mech tried to scream and call out the moment he began to realize something was up, but it was already too late. Starscream silenced him, and then took his consciousness and bundled it up somewhere it wouldn’t be able to interfere. It was almost too easy. Finally, he had a body again. Thin, tiny, and weak, but a body nonetheless.

He gave a triumphant sneer and then looked at the Chronosphere. Finally, it was all his. All he had to do now was repair it. He turned to the shuttle, who had been clearing more debris out the way.

“Startracker! Come here!” he shouted. “You have new orders. I need you to move this equipment and hook it up to this machine.”

Startracker gave a polite nod and did as he said. Starscream ordered him about, getting him to help as he started to work on the control panel. The mech obeyed flawlessly as he continued the repairs bit by bit.

-

Starscream got lost in his work as he continued to work on the Chronosphere. Gradually it came closer to being completed. As he fixed the broken wiring and the thing finally came back online, he heard the glorious hum of its systems rebooting.

“Chiselpick, what are you doing?” Starscream looked up and looked at the little sedimentary sample bot from earlier.

“Oh yes, I had forgotten about you,” Starscream said, leaning back on the control panel. He felt around in his circuits for any weapons. The science frame was equipped only with a laser cutter, more meant for cutting out rock samples, but it would still do something.

“You found something still functional here, and you didn’t tell me?” Stonebolt asked.

“Oh no, I fixed it myself.”

“What? But how? Do you even know what it does?”

“Oh, I do. It’s a Chronosphere. It’s capable of transporting mechs through time.”

“What? But a device like that could be incredibly dangerous.”

“Well, fortunately, I don’t care. I’m simply going to use this to travel back in time.”

“What? Are you mad? You couldn’t do something like that.”

Starscream threw back his head and laughed. “Oh, but I will. I’ve been trapped out here for far too long. I will use this chance to go back in time and become the leader of the Decepticons, the ruler of Cybertron, and even the whole universe.”

The sedimentary sampler stared at him, optics wide. “What’s wrong with you?”

“Absolutely nothing. Just thinking a little differently now, that’s all. My name is Starscream, and I’m in control of this body. And with this wonderful discovery of yours, I shall soon have everything in life I ever wanted.”

“Not if I stop you!” The science frame charged at him. Starscream lifted up the laser cutter and fired. Hitting the mech right in the chest through his spark chamber, his body fell and crumpled to the ground.

The shuttle stepped forward, moving to grab him. Starscream spun around and pointed the cutter at him.

“You killed him!” the shuttle growled.

“Would you really side with them? Do you think they care about you?”

“They are my friends.”

“I would say ‘were’ your friends.”

The shuttle charged forward. Starscream fired a blast that went straight through its visor, piercing its processor. It collapsed to the floor with a thud.

“What a stupid mech,” he muttered before he went back to the controls. He set the coordinates to the right time. The machine flared to life, and he stepped through.

-

Starscream relinquished control of his body back to the science frame. It took the mech a moment to recalibrate. He blinked as though the last few breems had been a dream, and then realization hit him.

“Oh, Primus! Stonebolt and Startracker! They’re dead!”

_“Ah yes, all by your hand,” _Starscream whispered to him.__

 “No…” Chiselpick clearly tried to look around, finding only darkness. “Where am I?”

_“You’re in the same room you were in a moment ago, only now seven million years back in the past. The cave entrance is still blocked, and no one will reach this planet until long after your energon resources have run out. I imagine they’ll be quite surprised to find a corpse like yours here when they do. Future archaeologists will have quite the day trying to make sense of that.”_

“This can’t be happening.”

_“Oh, trust me, it is,” _Starscream said._ “But don’t worry. You won’t have to wait that long. I set the controls on the Chronosphere to overload in ten minutes. You’ll be dead soon enough.” _

He laughed as he felt panic flood the sciences frames field.

_“But I have to leave you for now. I have other places I need to be. I must get back to Cybertron.”_

And with that he vacated the helpless scientist’s body, leaving him alone and struggling to get through the blocked door as the time slowly ran out.

Starscream’s spark went back through space, this time with a renewed sense of purpose. Starscream would say it was a very good day so far.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I would like to thank Hidden Director for proofreading this for me. Also for helping to come up with names for the science frames in this chapter, who I then immediately killed off.  
> https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenDirector


	2. A Seeker Amongst Science Frames

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warning for this chapter: Not really a suicide mention (more coercion) but a character does jump off a bridge in this chapter. TW just in case.
> 
> Thanks again to HD for proofreading this chapter  
> https://archiveofourown.org/users/HiddenDirector
> 
> EDIT: Once again fixed a bunch of italics I failed to realise were missing when I first posted this.

Iacon academy was bustling with students and scientific mecha everywhere. Most of them conversing with each other on new projects and discoveries. Everyone knew it was a learning house of science and enlightenment.

There was, however, a ripple of silence that followed as one particular mech walked through the hallways. As he approached some whispered, some moved out the way, a few shared derisive comments as the flight frame walked through. The young seeker had a smirk on his face, his wings held high. He walked through the building as if he owned the place, which was the part that made people angry. He knew this was the case, and it was one of the reasons he had developed this face specifically for the purpose of walking through the academy halls.

He stopped though and quickly checked in his subspace, making sure the data pad was still there. It was, good. He could relax. So long as he had that with him, everything would go right.

-

Starscream got back to his hab suite pretty quickly. He’d flown even though the claustrophobic arrangement of the city’s structure made it difficult to get a good flight path. He stepped inside and made sure the door was locked before he took the item out of his subspace, then he got to work.

He sat back on his berth and grinned as he looked at the datapad. The young seeker was quite delighted that all his efforts had paid off. It had taken quite a lot of effort to break into the Scientific Academy’s data banks. But finally, after several cycles, he was staring at the scientific paper submitted by one of his fellow students for their final assessment. The student had done nothing but mock and deride him for the entirety of the semester. He’d been the worst ringleader for commenting on how he’d been a warframe build and incapable of doing science. Also with his band of lackeys that had mocked him and Skyfire all while they’d been there. Starscream had wanted nothing more than to punch him in the face this whole semester, but that damn centrifuge knew what he was doing. If Starscream had picked a fight with him, he was always the one that got in trouble. They just used it as proof that warframes were more naturally predisposed to violence, and it was proof they were too stupid to be scientists. Even if it was the centrifuge that had started the fight. One more incident and Starscream felt sure they were going to kick him out of the academy.

So Starscream had learned to be sneaky. If he couldn’t use outright violence then cunning and wit would be his weapons. And now here he was, sitting with that centrifuge’s entire academic future in his hands. Oh, what bliss. Starscream cracked his servos and got to work.

He changed only small bits and pieces: tiny fragments of sentences, slight changes so that the findings gave the wrong results, tweaking the wording slightly, so the wrong meaning was given. The change had to be subtle, as much as he wanted to just tear their essay apart and replace it with vulgar insults towards their teacher, such sabotage would be obvious and spotted immediately. He needed to change things just enough, but in ways that wouldn’t be instantly obvious. So even the original writer would look through and not notice all the changes at first glance. He wanted to make it look like a lazy rush job typed the night before submission and not checked even once.

Starscream typed with delight and as he gradually destroyed the essay from the inside out. He finished and finally saved the changes. Putting down the data pad and reclining back on the bed and crossing his legs. Delighted with his work, he only wished he would have been able to see his lecturer’s response to the paper.

But hopefully, he would be in the lecture hall when they all received their results. He would love to watch the centrifuge’s response to that.

He looked at the time. He was meant to be meeting Skyfire in the next breem. He quickly got up and got ready to go. They were going to discuss their next science project together. At this point, he was going to be late.

However, he did quickly go back to the datapad and delete all evidence of his sabotage. It wouldn’t do to leave a trace of what he had been up to.

He paused, feeling a chill down his spine. It felt like someone was right behind him. He spun around, but when he looked, he didn’t see anyone. He was still alone in his living quarters. He eyed the room suspiciously, certain he had felt something. But after an examination, he determined there was nothing there. He hurriedly left, feeling grateful to be out of the building for the moment.

-

The ghost stood in the living quarters, just looking around, soaking up the details of the room. He looked around the familiar place. It had been over several million years since he had last been here. It was almost a shock to see it exactly as he’d remembered it. And then his younger self had walked through the door, with the familiar sly grin Starscream recognised from himself. Starscream had stood there, entranced for a while as he saw himself work on an essay. He’d forgotten about that prank, the attempt to sabotage his fellow colleague’s scientific paper. He remembered that ploy managed to work, too. They had discovered it had been tampered with, but they’d never found out who was responsible, and that had been the most delightful part. He had to admire his younger self for his tenacity.

Then when his former self had jumped off the berth and had looked ready to dart off. Starscream had almost reached out and touched him…

He’d stopped himself when the younger seeker had turned around, it seemed for a moment he had sensed him, but the young mech had looked around as if he saw absolutely nothing. Starscream didn’t do anything as he’d left, and now he was alone. He considered his options, wondering what best to do now. It seemed now he had a golden opportunity. Knowing what he knew now, he could change things. He could fix everything that would go wrong with his life. He could guide himself towards a bright and better future. He could make it so that Skyfire never crashed into the Earth’s Arctic. So that he never got kicked out of the scientific academy, that he would never have to suffer under the hand of Megatron. He could take his rightful place as glorious leader of the Decepticons and lead them to an amazing future with everyone under his rule.

Yes. This would be perfect. Starscream knew just what to do. He would not squander this opportunity.

-

Starscream transformed and then touched down on the steps leading to Iacon’s pavilion. There, waiting for him was Skyfire, his best friend at the academy. Well, possibly about his only friend since he’d mostly just managed to make enemies so far. Mostly the other mechs who’d made their disdain for flight frames very obvious. He and Skyfire had stuck together and managed to show them exactly what flight frames could do.

Starscream beamed as he saw Skyfire, his wingtips fluttering. There was something about the shuttle that just made Starscream’s spark sing every time he saw him. Not that he’d admit it though, that sort of thing was too embarrassing. Besides, what if Skyfire thought that Starscream was being ridiculous? Maybe Skyfire only wanted to see him as a friend, and trying to push things would just push Skyfire away. Starscream was too afraid to risk it.

But nevertheless, a smile lit up on the shuttle’s face as he saw Starscream approaching, and Starscream couldn’t help but respond in kind. “Hi, Sky!” he said.

“Star! There you are,” Skyfire smiled. “Are you ready to go?”

“Yes, of course.”

They started to walk down the pavilion grounds, heading towards the bridge leading to one of the towering spires of the academy. It was quite a beautiful sight for the city. As they walked, Skyfire took out a datapad from his subspace.

“I’ve been talking to the academy about something for when our course has finished. I think you might be quite interested.”

“Oh look chaps, it’s the two fly-entists again,” a voice from behind suddenly called. Starscream’s head whipped around as his optics narrowed. There were a gang of three science frames all sitting down by the steps of the bridge. Watching them as they walked past. There was a blue spectrometer, a stout green seismometer, and a red thermometer. Starscream recognised them from class, friends of that goddamn centrifuge. The three of them were all sneering as they chatted amongst each other, pretending to be speaking to themselves, but loud enough so the two flight frames could clearly hear.

“It’s still such a shame to see the riff-raff at such a prestigious academy. Who would have ever thought they’d let flyers come here?”

“And after all the work Sentinel’s done to keep them out.”

“It’s amazing one of them hasn’t tried to smash the academy yet, it’s in their programming you know.”

Starscream’s optics narrowed as he looked at them. Oh, how much he wanted to…

He felt a strong grip on his arm.

“Star, don’t. It’s not worth it,” Skyfire whispered to him.

Starscream grumbled. “I know, but those slagging fraggers deserve a good recalibrating of their cerebral processors.”

“I know, but you know they’re doing it just to wind us up. We can’t risk getting in trouble,” Skyfire said.

Starscream managed to loosen his arm out of Skyfire’s grasp, and the two of them carried on walking. Starscream continued muttering to himself. “I’ll just have to get back at them some other way, like with their centrifuge friend.”

Skyfire hummed in concern. “Star, what did you do?”

“What? Oh, nothing. I’ll tell you all about it later,” Starscream said, giving his most innocent looking smile.

“I always worry when you pull that face,” Skyfire mumbled.

-

As the two walked away, the three science frames carried on talking to each other.

“I do wonder why they keep them around,” the thermometer said.

“Especially that warframe,” the spectrometer said. “Honestly, it’s an insult to pretend he can be a scientist. Everyone knows they’re too dim and violent to ever succeed at anything intellectual. At least I can see why they keep that shuttle around; you always need someone to carry the equipment.”

All three of them laughed, the sound rattling through the streets until suddenly the spectrometer stopped. He sat bolt upright and stopped speaking, gazing forward without saying a word. Then suddenly he stood up, with no change in his expression. His two friends hadn’t even noticed as they continued laughing. Their laughter only died down as the spectrometer stepped forward walking towards the edge of the bridge.

“Hey, Spec? Where are you going?”

The spectrometer didn’t say anything as he climbed up onto the railing of the bridge and then jumped off, falling several thousand feet.

-

They ended up both back at Starscream’s hab suite to discuss what Skyfire’s findings had been. Starscream sitting back on his berth while Skyfire sat on the floor, getting some datapads out of his subspace. “So I was asking about the possibility of us signing up for the off-world exploration program.”

“Wait, you managed to succeed? They’re really thinking of letting us go through with that?”

“Yes, I’ve put in an application for it. The teacher actually sounded quite enthusiastic about it. It seems they’re still worried about the energon shortages. It looks like they’ll probably send us out to locate new possible sources off world. They said a set of flyers would be perfect for that.”

“Finally, some appreciation for our skills,” Starscream said. He wondered, though, how much they had picked just because they could fly and be fitted for space travel, and not actually for any of their scientific prowess. Still, it was a start.

“It could be an amazing opportunity, and think of all the life forms we’ll see Star,” Skyfire said, positively beaming. His wings fluttered excitedly. “We’ll probably get to discover all sorts of species, things never seen before by any Cybertronian.”

Starscream gave a little smile at Skyfire’s enthusiasm. The shuttle was fascinated by bioorganic life. How it grew and developed, how it was so different from cybernetic life. Skyfire found studying the life-cycles of these creatures fascinating.

Starscream didn’t particularly care about organics. He found them very icky and squishy, and capable of leaving lots of gunk that stuck to his plating. But he loved Skyfire’s enthusiasm. He watched the smile stay on Skyfire’s face as he flicked through all the information on his datapad. It was always such a sincere and warm smile Starscream found comforting.

For both of them it was their dream come true, Starscream would be able to show his skills of energy production and conversion. And the thought of getting to be by his side at the same time sounded perfect to him.

They talked long into the night about what they’d have to do. Skyfire had a list of the applications they’d have to fill in. They would have to get upgrades so their frames could be fitted for interstellar travel, basic medical training in case one of them got injured, different ways to manufacture energon from different sources, but… the more they spoke, the more it sounded real. This could actually happen. After all this time they were finally going to get their dream of being recognised for their scientific worth.

A smile stayed on Starscream’s faceplates throughout the night.

It wasn’t until Skyfire gave a yawn that the evening came to an end. “I’m very sorry, Star. I’ll have to back home to recharge now.”

“That’s okay Sky,” Starscream said. He wouldn’t have minded offering Skyfire the chance to stay at his for the night, but unfortunately, his berth was nowhere near big enough to fit a full-sized shuttle.

“I will see you tomorrow then.”

“Yes, of course, I’m looking forward to it,” Starscream said. “Besides, I might be able to catch the latest broadcast of Megatron’s gladiatorial battle.”

Skyfire chuckled. “Of course, I know you wouldn’t want to miss one. Well, good night then, Starscream,” Skyfire said as he left, being careful not to hit his head on the doorframe as he left.

“Good night, Sky,” Starscream said as the shuttle headed off. Starscream mumbled a little ‘love you’ as Skyfire walked away, but luckily the shuttle didn’t hear it.

When he was gone, Starscream sat down at his desk, ready to look up the newest footage of Megatron’s fight. He couldn’t wait to see it.

Suddenly he sat bolt upright in his chair. He felt something surge through him and run through his circuitry. He found himself unable to move. He tried to fight against whatever was overcoming him, but each time he tried to kick and scream he felt the thing stopped him at every turn. It felt as though this force knew exactly what move he was going to make before he even made it. He panicked as the feeling washed over his whole body and he realised it had nearly taken complete control over him.

He tried screaming out for Skyfire, but he was stopped again. This time he heard a voice inside his head.

_“Hush, little seeker.”_

What? That was his voice. It was his own voice speaking in his head! It was different, though. Something sounded off about it to him. Older, a more malevolent tone to his voice than he was expecting, with a hint of gleeful cunning in those few words. This just made him want to scream even more.

 _“What is going on?!”_ he tried to shout, only to find that his calls were muffled as his mouth stayed firmly shut. He tried kicking and squirming more against this power over him. But no matter what he did, it kept him firmly in place. To the outside world, he looked like a statue.

 _“Oh, come now, I once managed to possess a herald of Unicron. Do you think I’ll be stopped by some pitiful attempts from a tiny little seeker like you?”_ the voice that wasn’t his own said to him. His optics turned to the door. He wanted Skyfire to come back through and help him. He wanted somebody to save him.

 _“Don’t worry, I can assure you I have only your best interests at heart,”_ the voice said, in that same tone he knew from himself when he tried to be soothing and calming. This all still made him feel more uncomfortable.

 _“Whatever you are, get out of my head!”_ he tried to shout again.

_“Now, now, stay calm. Let me explain myself. I’m here to help you.”_

Starscream tried to scoff. _“I find that hard to believe.”_

 _“Be silent and listen to what I have to say.”_ The voice in his took a moment as if preparing for some speech. _“I am you, and I am from the future.”_

Starscream reeled in shock at hearing those words. He was surely going mad.

_“And I’ve decided I’m going to fix a few things.”_

_“That’s all nonsense! There’s no way you can be me!”_

_“Oh no? Well, I can probably give you a little taste of what’s to come.”_

Starscream felt something as the voice said this. A quick set of images flashed through Starscream’s mind. He felt emotions along with every single one, so strong and vivid it almost felt as real as if he was actually there.

He felt despair as he gazed down at an empty glacier. Then anger, war, and bloodshed, battles, and deaths all raced through his mind, both horrifying and exhilarating. Then fear and humiliation as he saw himself cowering before some a colossal figure that stared down at him with glowing red eyes, which then moved to strike him. Then he felt glorious triumph, he heard trumpeting music around him, along with flashes of gold and red and purple, a crown just for him. And then the terrifying figure came back, and the terror was overtaken by pain as he felt a blast pierce him and he felt his body crumble and shatter to pieces.

The pain of his own death felt almost real, and the image of that tall, terrifying figure stayed in his head.

Starscream screamed, he bolted and fell out of his chair. His vents rapidly working as he tried to process all those images.

 _“None of that will happen this time. I will see to it,”_ the voice said to him, finally starting to soothe him back into reality after the horror of those images.

Starscream was interrupted in his thoughts as he heard a knock on the door.

“Starscream? I thought I heard something. Is everything alright?”

Skyfire! It was Skyfire! He instantly tried to call out for him but found he still couldn’t say anything. He still had no control over his body.

He watched on, helpless as through no will of his own he stood up and walked calmly to the door. He tried desperately to gain some semblance of control, but the other force inside his head overwhelmed him and entrapped him. Taking away any control he had. When he opened the door and saw Skyfire standing there, he was already smiling.

“Hello, Skyfire. My old friend,” he heard himself say.

“Star, are you alright? I thought I heard a crash.”

“Oh no, just knocked a few things over. Don’t worry at all.” The smile on Starscream’s face spread. “I feel better than ever before.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The three science frames in this chapter I like to refer to as the Eton fuckboys (it's a rich all boys college in England which has the reputation for churning out posh twats, it just seemed the perfect mold for pre-war Iacon to me).


	3. Starscream begins his plans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to HiddenDirector for diligently proofreading this new chapter

Starscream couldn’t help but smile as he looked into Skyfire’s optics. It felt so good to see that young face again, the one that looked at him unreserved trust and familiarity. Before it had all gone wrong. Before Skyfire betrayed him. What a blessing it was to be back with his friend.

Skyfire gave a sigh of relief.

“That’s good; I was worried something had happened.”

In his head, Starscream heard his younger self crying and screaming out, desperately trying to call to the shuttle. Starscream focused and tried to drown the voice out. How could he concentrate on what he was saying with all this noise?

“Don’t worry Skyfire, I’m absolutely fine.”

“Okay then. Are you sure it’s nothing you need help with?”

That was a tempting offer. He could invite Skyfire in and take the initiative, make the move he should have made on him millions of years ago. But now wasn’t the time, he could do that later. First, there were others things to attend to.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry. There are a few things I need to sort out myself first.”

“Okay, I’ll see you at the lecture tomorrow, then.”

“I’d be delighted. Maybe we could even go out somewhere, perhaps you and me, flying around and seeing the city,” Starscream smiled. Skyfire looked a little sheepish at that.

“Oh, I don’t know, maybe we could…”

Starscream could tell he was nervous, but since the smile stayed on the shuttle’s face, he could see he was interested too.

“I’ll see you tomorrow then.”

“Okay, see you later, Star.”

“Goodbye, Skyfire.”

He waited for Skyfire to leave before he shut the door. Yes, things would go differently this time. Everything with Skyfire would be sorted out. He’d save him from a fate trapped in the ice. This time they would be side by side the whole way through the war, and Starscream would make sure that Skyfire would never even think of leaving him for those accursed Autobots.

Starscream felt so… comfortable being in this body. Of course he would be, it was like fitting into an old glove. But this was almost better than his old body, younger, not weighted down with the burden of a million years of war or Megatron’s beatings. This was a body young and spry and ready to take on the universe.

He’d done it once before, and he was going to do it again.

There were things he missed of course. His null rays were gone, and he felt defenseless without a weapon by his side, even though he told himself that there was nothing he needed to defend himself against. At least, not now anyway. The only annoyance was the younger voice still talking to him. He could feel the voice in his head struggling against him again, still distressed about him being in possession of his body, even after all his assurances. Well, Starscream would just have to prove his naïve self right.

_“I want control of my body back!”_

“Oh no, I couldn’t let you have that. I’ve got so much work to do.”

_“What do you mean?”_

“I’m going to sort out your future. I know everything that is going to happen to you. And trust me, it doesn’t go the way you want.”

The voice stayed silent, unsure.

“All those memories I showed you, that is the future you have to look forward to. Pain, suffering, and humiliation. But I can fix things now. You won’t have to cower before a warlord. I can steer you to the path of greatness you deserve with my knowledge of what will happen on your side. I shall make everything better…”

_“And… Skyfire, what are you going to do to Skyfire?”_

Starscream laughed at how indignant his younger self sounded.

“Skyfire, oh Skyfire. Don’t worry, I have no intention of harming him. He’s another thing I’m going to make sure goes right this time…” And Starscream allowed some of the memories to flood through again, this time in more detail to show what he was talking about.

-

Starscream gasped as another wave of memories flooded his processor, this time allowing him to be grounded in each one. He was flying alongside Skyfire in some unfamiliar terrain when they had been swept up in an icy wind. Panic overwhelmed his senses as he saw the shuttle being thrown further away from him.

Then he found himself back at the same glacier he’d seen before, he felt his frame ache and shiver as snow swirled around him. He felt himself stumble through as wind and ice pelted at his frame and clogged his jet engines. He found himself shouting out Skyfire’s name in desperation, circling through shouting, scanning, and checking his comm systems, all to find something that never came. He was lost and trapped, and Skyfire was nowhere. Why couldn’t he find him? Some sort of heavy realization was in his heart that Skyfire was gone.

“No… no, this can’t have happened!” Starscream called out.

“It does,” the older voice said cruelly.

“I don’t believe you!” he shouted, turning on the voice that had shown him these images. “This is a lie! This can’t be what happens to Skyfire!”

He refused to accept it, he fought against it. He pushed through these memories, demanding more. Then he felt almost like he’d run into a wall, the memories wouldn’t go any further. He was being blocked. The other Starscream was hiding something from him. He kept trying to push through, rattling against this cage. It felt like trying to walk through a wall of oil, but he kept going out of sheer stubbornness and determination.

Then he heard something, other voices. It was Skyfire’s.

 _‘Starscream… It’s you… you have rescued me… but where am I?’_ Starscream looked around, trying to find where Skyfire was. Wherever he was now looked foggy and grey. But he was alive? Skyfire had survived whatever had happened. He felt so relieved.

He turned around to suddenly see Skyfire on some sort of operating table, in some sort of ramshackle base. The base looked blurry and ill-defined, the memories of the base had faded, but the image of Skyfire had stayed strong in his mind. He could see the ice on Skyfire’s frame, the wear on his plating. It all worried Starscream, but he could feel the rush of relief and emotion he had once experienced as he had gone through this memory.

But the memory clouded, almost like a fog, being twisted and distorted, he felt anger take over his frame. He heard the two of them arguing. _‘I’m a scientist, not an executioner.’ ‘I am your superior, I order you to terminate them!’ ‘No! I will not! They have done no wrong!’ ‘But you have! Traitor!’_ There had been a flash of light and Starscream saw a single image of Skyfire’s face twist in pain, falling to the ground. No… no!

“Enough! You don’t need to see this!” The older voice cut into him.

Then the memories cut off abruptly, as he felt a sudden sharp stab of emotion. All of it directed at Skyfire himself. He felt anger, hatred, and betrayal. He felt this so clearly. Then it cut off, and he was standing back in his living quarters again. His vents working on overdrive to calm him down.

What… what had those last few seconds been?

“Never look at those memories again!” the older Starscream hissed, his voice sounding dangerous.

Starscream reeled at all this. He had seen into that other Starscream’s mind. And he had realized that this Starscream felt nothing for Skyfire but abject hatred and betrayal.

 _“What happened?”_ the young Starscream asked in his head. _“What was that?”_

He was merely ignored by the version in control of his body.

“That is none of your concern. It’s never going to happen anymore anyway. It’s one of the things I shall fix. Skyfire will never leave us this time. We shall be together. I promise this.”

-

The next day they went to their lecture as normal. It felt so odd for Starscream to be walking down these halls again. Last time he had been here he set them ablaze. Still, he couldn’t deny that the capital was beautiful; they were so grand and bold, and decadent. As much as Starscream admired their beauty he also felt the want to tear them down for everything they represented; the upholding of the Senate, of Functionism, everything the Decepticon cause rallied against.

As he walked alongside Skyfire, the two of them were suddenly interrupted.

“Oi! Flyentist!” Starscream looked round to see the seismometer and the thermometer from the other day storming towards them. Their fields flared with anger even from this far away.

“Of course, it’s those two cretins,” Starscream mumbled. It was very clear from the looks on their faces they were interested only in Starscream. Skyfire instinctively moved in the way to try and block them from the seeker, but seismometer strode past and walked right up to Starscream’s face.

“What did you do to Spec?”

“Your little spectrometer friend?” Starscream grinned. “Why? Did something happen?”

“You did something to him yesterday!”

“What?” Starscream said in false shock. “Why? What could I have possibly done?”

“I don’t know, but you did something. Yesterday he jumped off a bridge. He’s still in the medbay for serious repairs. Nearly smashed his frame to pieces.”

“Oh, Primus!” Skyfire said.

“Couldn’t have happened to a nicer person,” Starscream said.

“You’re the one that did it! We know you did,” the thermometer shouted.

“Really? I remember yesterday that I was just walking with Skyfire and I was nowhere near you lot when such a thing occurred. Why would you think it was me?”

“Because he said he heard your voice in his head and you made him jump.”

“Really?” Starscream smiled. “Do you have any proof?”

The needle on the seismometer’s readout spiked for a second.

“Well, no, but you made him do it! I know you did!”

“Well, maybe I created a special mind control ray, and I used that to take control of his body. At the same time, I also made it capable of relaying telepathic messages. But then I thought you said warbuilds like me were too stupid to be capable of making something like that.”

The science frames both faltered a bit, and so Starscream threw back his head and laughed.

“In that case, you two can both come back and accuse me of something sensible once you’ve actually got some proof and evidence to back it up. I thought that was what being a scientist was all about.” Starscream’s voice lowered, and he leaned in closer, “Until then you don’t get to accuse me of _anything!_ ” He then spun around on his heels. “Good day!”

Skyfire followed after him not too long afterward, he still looked concerned from the talk. “That poor mech, I do hope he’ll be alright.”

“Oh don’t worry about him, Skyfire. If he wants to be a stupid idiot, then that’s his choice. Besides, we owe him nothing.”

“I suppose, but… I do wonder what possessed him to do that.”

Starscream smiled at that choice of words. “I wouldn’t have a clue,” he chuckled.

 _“You really made him jump?”_ the young voice in his head said.

 _“Yes, I did.”_ Starscream thought over his short possession last night in his head, allowing the younger seeker to see the memories as well. He let him see precisely what the mechs had said once Skyfire, and he had been out of audio range.

He got a laugh from the young seeker. _“Well, that one did have it coming.”_

-

After that, they went to their lecture. The young Starscream watched everything that happened, it all carried on as though it was a normal day. Except for this time he was stuck as an observer. The other Starscream still held complete control of his body.

Starscream noted the older version took fewer notes than he wanted, and occasionally would mutter some sarcastic about the lecturer’s intelligence inside their head. Other than that, the other Starscream didn’t talk to him much. He seemed to keep to himself most of the time. Starscream had the feeling he was trying to keep secrets from him. If Starscream tried to directly ask him a question he was often dismissed. It felt horrible being trapped like this and being unable to get out of the loop of this new Starscream being in complete control of everything.

He noticed how the other Starscream kept stealing glances at Skyfire during the lecture. He felt angry at this. He did that too but hated that this voice in his head was stealing glances from him. That wasn’t fair that this other Starscream wanted Skyfire as much as him.

But also every time the other version looked at Skyfire he felt something. They both had thoughts of love for Skyfire, but there was something else there too. Under those feelings Starscream felt a rumbling of anger each time the other Starscream looked at Skyfire, like a storm in the distance. No matter what, it never went away. Starscream was trying to piece together what those feelings were about. What had happened to Skyfire in the future? He thought of that glimpse of Skyfire’s face hurt and twisted in pain. Was he dead? Had Starscream killed him? It felt like that wasn’t the case, but there was still something that happened. Either way, they had fought at some point. Why would Starscream ever do that to him? However each time he tried to sneak in and probe the other Starscream’s mind he felt himself flung out and pushed away. The other Starscream was good at keeping secrets. Starscream sighed to himself. Of course he would be…

Something about these feelings unnerved him. But he could only sit and think to himself as he tried to figure out this mystery.

-

Starscream enjoyed the old familiar sensation of gazing at Skyfire during their lectures. It had been over a million years since he had had the chance to do that. Also seeing Skyfire, young again, his face untouched by time and the wear of war, and no Autobot symbol marking his plating. Starscream bristled a bit thinking about the future, but he tried to shove those thoughts away. For now, it was just him and Skyfire.

Before he had always stolen tiny, fleeting glances during these lectures, scared that Skyfire would notice the constant staring. Now, he didn’t care as he continued watching Skyfire’s face. Besides, he already knew all the stuff the lecturer was talking about, so it gave him the opportunity to admire Skyfire’s frame as much as he could.

Skyfire also looked up and stole a glance at him, the shuttle blushed and nervously looked away when he realized he’d been caught. Starscream secretly chuckled to himself over shuttles shy awkwardness. It was always one of Skyfire’s most endearing qualities, one that had always drawn him to the shuttle.

He remembered when he had been this young. His love for Skyfire had been so obvious, but he had been too afraid to act on it. Things would be different this time.

_“Stop doing that.”_

Starscream smiled that the voice in his head and went back to pretending to take notes.

_“Doing what?”_

_“Staring at him. You can’t do that.”_

_“I can do whatever I want. Besides, if I leave this up to you, then you’ll never get round to admitting your feelings for him. I won’t be afraid to take the initiative.”_

_“What do you mean by that?”_

_“Oh, you’ll see.”_

After the lecture, Starscream and Skyfire walked out side by side. Starscream waited until they were on one of the academies balconies before he spoke.

“Skyfire?”

“Yes, Star?” Skyfire said, giving him that pleasant smile that always made Starscream feel safe.

“I have something to tell you,” he whispered, enticing Skyfire to lean closer to hear what he had to say.

“What is it?” Skyfire whispered back, lowering his voice to suit Starscream’s tone. Starscream waved his hand and beckoned him to lean closer still, resting his hand on Skyfire’s chest plate. As soon as Skyfire was close enough, Starscream leaned forward and kissed him.

The voice in his head screamed. It made Starscream smile a little bit more as he continued the kiss.

He carefully pulled away from Skyfire and meeting the shuttles surprised optics with a calm gaze.

“I love you,” he said. His hand slid down Skyfire’s frame and found its way into Skyfire’s hand. Both of their hands wrapped together, and they stood there for a moment.

Skyfire still looked a little stunned but not unhappy.

“What’s brought this on?” he asked, still clearly a little surprised.

“It’s just something I’ve meant to say to you for a while. I do love you, Skyfire. I wondered if you wanted to be something a little bit more than just friends.”

“I…” Despite Skyfire’s still baffled expression, he tightened his grip on Starscream’s hand. “I feel the same way. I love you, too, Starscream. I would love to go out with you.”

Starscream’s smile extended over his face. “That’s just what I’ve always wanted to hear.” They walked together out of the academy building, their hands still intertwined.

“Would you like to fly back home together?” Skyfire suggested.

“I would love to,” Starscream said. Then together they both transformed and flew off into the sky together, the shuttle going slower than the seeker, but Starscream delighted in gracefully flying circles around the shuttle.

Starscream couldn’t have been happier.

-

Starscream hated this.

This was all some horrible bad dream. He didn’t want to take this anymore. He wanted it all to stop and for the force controlling his body and making him do things to go away and leave him in peace.

 _“This isn’t fair!”_ he tried to shout. He wanted to strike out and trash about and circle up and whine. Outwardly he was just casually lounging on his berth and humming a tune.

“What? It isn’t my fault you were too much of a coward to admit how you felt. I just sped things up a bit.”

_“You stole my first kiss from Skyfire! That should have been for me, and you took it away from me!”_

“Your first kiss would have been atrocious. You would have messed it all up. Trust me, I know.”

_“You don’t even love him anyway, you hate him. I’ve felt how you think about him.”_

Starscream felt his body suddenly go rigid. He felt his teeth grit and gnash against each other.

“ _Never_ doubt my love for Skyfire!” he shouted. Starscream suddenly felt afraid as he felt something rise up in the other Starscream’s mind. The same storm he had felt before. “You don’t know what I’ve been through! What happened between us!”

_“Because you won’t tell me anything!”_

“Everything I’m doing, I’m doing to make your life better! All this is for you! Never question me again!” He stood up and walked over to the window. Looking out at the grand Cybertronian sky. “Besides, this is only the beginning. There are still other important things to attend to,” he said.

 _“Like what?”_ he asked suspiciously, unnerved by the confident tone in his voice. He recognized that one, from when he had some scheme planned. It was odd to be on the receiving end of it.

“We’re going to kill Megatron.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter: Starscream makes a start on his ultimate plans to get rid of Megatron.


	4. Preparations

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to HiddenDirector for the proof reading with this chapter, it's been a big help with doing these.

Starscream fell into shock at hearing what his older self had just proposed.

 _“Kill Megatron?”_ He couldn’t process that sentence. Megatron the gladiator, Starscream had watched all his fights enraptured and read all of his poetry, hanging on every word. There was no one Starscream admired more in the universe. When he’d felt he should just give up on being a scientist, Starscream had always turned to his speeches decrying functionism, and they’d given him the determination to carry on. That his life didn’t have to be dictated by the role he’d been assigned for his frame type.

_“But… Megatron’s a hero!”_

“A HERO!” the one possessing him suddenly shouted. Starscream cowered. He felt an intense burst of rage and hatred well up. He felt it wrap around and smother him. The voice shouted directly into his very being. “YOU DON’T KNOW ANYTHING ABOUT MEGATRON! I WILL MAKE HIM PAY! I WILL DESTROY HIM FOR WHAT HE DID TO ME!”

Too many images flashed past his mind for him to process. Each one of them painful, he flinched as he saw himself being attacked by some sort of giant terrifying figure. He was punched, kicked, shot at, he felt his limbs crushed, his wings torn off. All of them flashed past at breakneck speed, and he barely had time to register any of them.

He collapsed onto his knees, reeling in shock as if all of those things had been real. No… this couldn’t be true…

 _“Megatron will only bring you pain,”_ the other Starscream said, trying to be comforting. But he only felt terrified by what he had seen. This was a lie; there was no way that could be the fighter he looked up to.

Starscream felt something run down his cheeks. He lifted up his hand to his faceplate and wiped off the coolant that was leaking from his optics. He hadn’t realised that he’d started crying.

“Don’t worry,” he heard his own voice say, disdainfully rubbing the coolant into his fingers. “None of this will come to pass.”

-

After that, the older Starscream just stopped talking to him. He didn’t inform Starscream of their plans, so he was left trapped in his own mind as they went about their ordinary day. But Starscream had the feeling the force controlling him was scheming something. But it seemed he was going to have to wait to find out.

The next few cycles were weird. They went about doing his normal daily routine. There were moments Starscream felt he had control of his body again. He’d so naturally go through the motions of his day that it almost felt like he was him again. Down to even little habits like how he’d cross his legs when he sat, how he’d best get his wings comfortable when he had to lean on something, how he’d casually tap his fingers against the table while he worked. It was all him, it was all so right, but then suddenly they’d do something different, and he was jerked into being reminded that he was no longer in control of himself. Like how he suddenly refused to put sweetener into his morning energon, almost scoffing at the suggestion, how he had the nervous tick of looking over his shoulder when he heard a noise. Or how he’d turn off the vid feed the moment there was a mention of Megatron when Starscream would have hung on any news of his hero. All these details felt so off.

And all the time he’d been waiting to hear exactly what this Starscream’s grand plan was. But he was met only with rage and annoyance when he tried to ask about Megatron. He could tell the other Starscream was planning something, he just wished he could find a way to figure out what.

In the meantime, he continued to arrange dates with Skyfire. The force possessing his body was taking as much advantage as he could of meeting up with Skyfire and being together. The two of them visiting the nicer parts of Iacon and spending more time together, often going round to one another’s living quarters and often falling into recharge next to each other, often completely wrapped in Skyfire’s arms. Starscream hated every second of this. He hated only being able to voyeuristically live out his own life through his eyes, every time he saw Skyfire stare at him, gazing at him affectionately, unaware it was for a fake Starscream, it made a feeling of despair churn up in his tanks.

 _“Can’t I just talk to him, even just for a breem?”_ Starscream asked as he sat with Skyfire in a restaurant, the two of them holding servos as they drank energon.

 _“Oh no, I couldn’t risk letting you out,”_ the older Starscream said as he continued to gaze into Skyfire’s optics. _“You’ll tell him what’s going on and ruin all my plans. I can’t have that.”_

_“When will you let me out then?”_

_“When I’ve done everything I need to do.”_

_“Which is when? The next few cycles? A vorn? A decavorn? You said you know what’s going to happen to me for the next several million years. You said you’re doing this all for me. Am I allowed to make any of my own decisions or are you going to keep me in here forever?”_

A noncommittal sound came from Starscream’s lips. “We’ll see when it’s right.”

“Star? Are you okay?”

Starscream looked back up to see Skyfire looking at him, a twinge of worry on his faceplates.

“You seem a bit distracted.”

“I’m fine Skyfire, just thinking.”

“If something’s wrong, you know you can always tell me.”

 _“I love you so much, and I haven’t even been able to tell you…”_ Starscream wanted to say. He wished the words would come from him, not the other Starscream.

“I’m alright Skyfire,” Starscream smiled.

Skyfire gave a look as if he wasn’t sure, but it was only there for a glimpse.

“It feels like you’ve been a bit different recently.”

Starscream’s wings flickered.

“Different? How?” the words came out calmly, but he felt the suspicion his other self had.

“Just… I don’t know…” Skyfire said. He looked into his optics as if searching for something. Starscream hoped he would notice him staring back at him, that he’d see something was wrong.

But Skyfire shook his head. “It’s nothing, ignore me.”

Starscream’s spark sank.

“I just decided to be a bit more decisive, that’s all,” the Starscream in control said. “Also Skyfire, I just might be away for a few days soon.”

“Oh? Really? Where to?”

“Oh just back to Vos for a couple of days. It shouldn’t take long,” the lie dripped from his lips.

Starscream perked up and paid attention, recognising when he had a scheme going. He tried to listen out for any hints about it.

“Do you want me to come with you?”

_“Yes. Please.”_

“No, it’ll be fine. It’s just some boring personal business, and then I’ll be back. It’s just something I need to sort out.”

“Oh, okay, Star. I’ll see you when you get back.” Skyfire leaned over and gave him a small kiss on his forehelm. The trapped Starscream made an unheard grumble of annoyance.

“Thank you, Skyfire,” Starscream smiled at him.

-

The next day he packed a selection of energon rations and all their money into his subspace. Then he stepped out of their living quarters before transforming and heading off into the sky.

 _“So where are we really going?”_ the younger Starscream asked, having been unable to get anything out of himself the previous cycle.

“Don’t worry, you’ll see eventually.”

After a while, Starscream started to guess where they were heading. At first, he felt certain they must be heading in the direction of the gladiator pits where Megatron fought, but suddenly they diverted course. Once again, Starscream had no idea where they were going. As they continued their course, it seemed they were headed to a part of the city that was lined with casinos and dirty streets.

_“Wait, what’s going on?”_

“Oh, it’s part one of the plan.”

Starscream headed into one casino and exchanged all their money for chips, and then he headed straight for the gambling tables.

Starscream felt a mixture of apprehension but also curiosity. He did enjoy a game or two sometimes, and he was an expert at cheating. He observed as they sat down for a game of cards, getting some looks from the other patrons for being an obviously young and comparatively clean mech, but no one complained when he put in a fairly large bet on the first round and got dealt a set of cards.

Starscream quickly realised his older self was a brilliant cheater. He knew even more tricks than he did, his hands deftly picking up cards switching them. Starscream watched as he performed little tricks and tried to pick up on how to do them himself. Eventually, Starscream felt himself get into the mood of the game. He kept an optic out for the other players and sometimes gave the other Starscream tips that he had missed, and they both helped each other cheat to perfection. They gelled as they got into the swing of cheating and deceiving. They were quickly winning. For the first time ever since this had all happened, Starscream found he liked his older self.

They managed to accumulate quite a treasure hoard of chips. Starscream’s excitement grew. With this money he could afford one of the fanciest apartments in all of Iacon, he could dine on fine energon and maybe even get some sort of ridiculously fancy frame upgrade.

They left after a few more games, with the young seeker feeling disappointed.

“Oh, don’t worry, it’s not over yet,” the older seeker assured him. “We’re just moving somewhere else. If we get too rich, they’ll suspect something and throw us out. It’s always better to move somewhere else while the going’s still good.”

They went instead to another casino and started the routine again. They made their way through about three casinos before he rented out some cheap apartment and stayed there for the night. Starscream’s mind was swimming with all the stuff he could soon spend money on. He was set up for life now. They could just keep doing this forever.

 _“You’re a genius!”_ he told himself.

“Why, thank you.”

_“Think of all we’ll be able to do with this! I want to get one of the quarters at the top of Iacon’s towers so I can look down on the entire city beneath me. Skyfire will be so impressed when he sees what I’ve got.”_

“Hmph, that’s not going to be the plan,” Starscream smirked.

His spark suddenly jumped as he felt the malevolence in the other mech’s words. He could feel there was some darker intention there. As they both stared at the money in their hands, Starscream could feel they actually had very different intentions around it.

_“Wait, what do you mean? We could be set for life! We could never have a worry again!”_

“How naïve you are,” he heard himself say. “Things won’t be like this forever. War’s coming soon, and this will all be worthless by that point. We’re going to do something different. You’ll see tomorrow.”

-

The next day they headed to one of the city’s alleyways, his optics searching around for something in particular, but what Starscream couldn’t say. This particular alley was extremely dirty and covered by shadows from the tall buildings above. It looked exactly like the sort of place where only some kinda of dodgy deal could go on.

Finally, his optics seemed to settle on a mech he’d never seen before. One with a pretty gaudily painted colour scheme and a large visor covering his optics. Starscream found himself heading in his direction. The mech looked him up and down.

“Can I help you, kid?”

“Yes, you can, actually. I’m in need of some of your services.”

The mechs visor darkened with suspicion.

“A bit young to come to a place like this, ain’t ya, kid?”

“Oh, but does that really matter when I’ve got the goods to pay?” Starscream took some of the chips out of his subspace and rattled them in his fingers in front of the mech. Their visor suddenly lit up again.

“Well, I might be interested in doing business then.”

“Very good.”

“How did you find out about me though?”

“I got your name as a recommendation from a friend,” Starscream smiled smugly. “I’ve heard you give the best service.”

“Well, then, what do you want?”

“Weapons,” he smiled. “Lots of weapons.”

Starscream internally screeched as he gave up all the money that could have seen him live comfortably for vorns. Instead, he traded it for a shield, a purple mask, and also an energon sword.

“Hmm, I could also use a gun,” Starscream said.

“I’ve got a plasma rifle if that’s your thing,” the dealer said.

“Do you have a null ray? That’s always been my preference,” Starscream said calmly. “Preferably one that can be concealed.”

“I’ve got a small one that should fit nicely into your arm compartment. Won’t be very strong though.”

“That’s fine. Concealment is the most important thing.”

“You’re the one that’s paying.”

There was a level of glee as Starscream took the weapon. Opening up his arm plating and placing it inside. He tested the mechanism to watch it smoothly disappear and then appear into his plating. He practiced bringing it online and felt the build-up of power in its barrel.

“It’s perfect,” he smiled.

“Always good to have a satisfied customer,” the dealer said, grinning.

Starscream paid him, watching helplessly as all the money he had accumulated disappeared just like that. Then they took to the skies, half of the weaponry in his subspace, the shield attaching to the back of his jet plating.

_“Now where are we going?”_

“Now we’re going to do what we came here to do.”

-

Starscream flew over the gladiatorial pits, circling around the great arena. Below he could see several mechs fighting. There was a loud cheer from the crowd as weapons clashed. Starscream hovered over the arena, circling around it in his alt-mode, scanning below for his target. From above it was hard to tell all the different mechs apart, but gradually he started to discern where his target was.

As he got closer, he started to make out the fighters, recognising the greys and silvers of his target, currently sparring with another large burgundy mech. Megatron was fighting against him with a large shield and his flail. Megatron knocked him down. He raised his weapon above his head, and the crowd cheered. His large grey imposing frame stood tall amongst them.

“Found him.”

In his head, he could feel his younger self buzzing with anticipation.

_“Oh, Primus! Oh, Primus! We’re really here! That’s Megatron! I never thought I’d be this close! Oh, Primus!”_

If Starscream wasn’t in his alt-mode, he would have rolled his optics. He was disgusted by how much adoration he could feel emanating from his other self. He was still a stupid fool. He knew nothing of Megatron.

He decided to swoop down, catching the audience’s attention as he performed a few aerial tricks and dives. There were a few ‘Ooh’s and ‘Ahh’s amongst the crowd. He dragged all the attention onto him, making it look like part of the show as he finally swooped down, transformed and stood in the centre of the arena.

He bowed as he got a round of applause from the audience, basking in their cheers for the moment.

He then turned and looked at Megatron. The grey mech seemed annoyed he had stolen his attention. Megatron sized him up, clearly gauging him.

Starscream gripped the weapons he had chosen for himself, the sword and shield. The mask covered his face. It was a decent disguise, and it also managed to help make things look it was part of some theatrics for the crowd.

Starscream lifted his sword and pointed it at Megatron.

“Megatron! I am here to face you in single combat…” he announced, the crowd giving a cheer to that. Megatron’s scowl lowered. “… To the death!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Friday: Let's Kill Megatron
> 
> (The dealer character in this I totally wanted to be Swindle, but then I remembered how the Combaticons got made and then remembered that would not work here)


	5. Let's Kill Megatron

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks again to HiddenDirector for proofreading this.
> 
> Now we come to the grand battle between Megatron and Starscream.

At the announcement of his grand statement, Megatron simply laughed.

“You? You are a mere child. Go home young seeker, you can’t face someone like me.”

“Oh trust me; you have no idea what I’m capable of!” Starscream called.

_“Oh Primus, oh Primus, oh Primus! He’s staring straight at me!”_

_“Oh, be quiet!”_ Starscream thought and then carried on his speech. “I will kill you this very day for all the suffering you have caused to me.”

“You are mistaken. I’ve never seen you before in my life. Fly home; I don’t want to hurt a youngling like you.”

Starscream bristled at those words, puffing out his wings.

“Don’t want to hurt me? How dare you say that! I know what you’re like, deep inside. And I am going to make you pay!”

Starscream activated his thrusters and leapt towards him, screaming as he brandished his sword. Megatron calmly stepped back and lifted up his shield, blocking the attack. Starscream swung again and again. He kept wildly slashing at him, trying to get through, but Megatron calmly blocked each attack, swiftly manoeuvring his shield to dodge the attacks. Starscream just felt more enraged as his attacks failed to hit him. He just wanted Megatron dead!

Finally, Megatron attacked back, he swung the flail up, forcing Starscream to step back. As he did, Megatron bashed his shield forward into Starscream’s chest, knocking him back.

Starscream stumbled back, his legs wobbling as he clutched his chest. The blow hurt far worse than it should have. He had taken much worse blows and felt much less, but he was now in a much more lightly armoured body. He realised it wasn’t going to be able to take as much punishment.

“Stand down. You clearly cannot take me,” Megatron said.

Starscream looked up at him, his optics burning with rage. No! He was not going to leave until he achieved what he came here for!

“NEVER!” He leapt forward again, slashing with the blade. Megatron stepped out of the way again and then curled his fist.

 _“He’s going for an uppercut then shield bash!”_ a voice inside him shouted. Starscream stepped out of the way just in time, catching Megatron off-guard. Starscream swung the sword, managing to slash at Megatron’s chest, knocking the warrior back.

He felt elated as he made the hit, but Megatron quickly found his balance, and he went to attack again.

 _“Duck under the mace!”_ Starscream followed the instructions and ducked just as Megatron brought his flail down. Then he leapt up at Megatron, slicing again at his chest, this time managing to tear a much deeper gouge in Megatron’s armour. Megatron gave out a scream before he swung his fist at Starscream.

Starscream’s jets propelled him away from the blow, and he stood at a distance. A grin spread across his face as he delighted in seeing Megatron’s face twist in pain. Starscream still couldn’t quite believe what had happened. He felt inside his head.

“You warned me…” he said to himself. “I’m surprised you decided to help.”

_“Of course! I would have died!”_

Starscream remembered now, how much he had watched Megatron’s battles in his youth. He had memorised each of Megatron’s moves and battles by heart. No one could have been a better ally to accompany him.

“Good, then you can direct me. If you guide all of my moves and attacks, we’ll be able to get past all of Megatron’s weaknesses.”

As he activated his jet heels, he heard the voice shout out, _“Oh Primus!”_

They flew at Megatron, this time managing to avoid all his attacks and blows. He followed all of the voice’s instructions, almost feeling them by instinct as they came out. He ducked and rolled and slashed, getting gradually closer to Megatron with each blow. The long flail managed to keep some distance between the two of them, but Starscream knew it would just take one single blow through his spark chamber and Megatron would die and he would stand victorious. The future leadership of the Decepticons and all of Cybertron was within his grasp!

Megatron kept stepping back from all his attacks, clearly confused how such a youngling was dodging and weaving through each of his own. Starscream relished in seeing that look on Megatron’s face.

“Feeling scared yet, Megatron?” he taunted. “I’ve always wanted to see that look from you.”

“Why do you hate me so much?”

_“I don’t hate you! You’re my hero! I’m sorry.”_

Starscream felt himself go into a fury as he charged again.

“Because I have had to put up with years of being crushed under your foot, living in fear of you! I’ve wanted nothing more than to see you dead for the last seven million years! I’ll make sure you die by hand!”

He threw up his shield, bashing Megatron in the face. Finally knocking Megatron’s own shield from his hands. Now! He had his opening.

He lifted his sword above his head and prepared to stab down.

_“No! Don’t!”_

It was too late. Megatron grabbed his arm, twisting it back until the pain was too much for him to keep his grip on the weapon and it dropped out of his hand. Then Megatron kept on twisting it back until Starscream felt the circuits strain in his arm. They gave way, and his arm was torn clean off.

His younger self screamed, filling his audial with nothing but pitching shrieks. The pain hit the young seeker so hard his processor stopped working, and all he did was let out a never-ending scream as they saw their arm lying completely limp on the floor, energon spilling from the cut off wiring protruding out of it.

He was used to this, it wasn’t the first time he had lost a limb, but for the younger seeker, it flooded his mind with panic. His strategic thoughts had turned into screeching static as he continued looking in shock at what had happened.

The panic was so intense that Starscream’s body halted, unable to move or do anything other than stare at the discarded limb. He realised he had lost control over his body. His younger self had torn away from his control through the sheer intensity of his panic. He fell to his knees, still staring at his arm. Try as he might he couldn’t convince his body to move.

 _“What are you doing you fool? Get up! This won’t get us anywhere!”_ he shouted, but the screaming didn’t stop. He couldn’t hear himself think over this. Suddenly a fist bashed into his face, knocking them to the ground.

The seeker looked up to remember Megatron was still standing over him.

“All that bravado, and clearly it was just for show.”

The young seeker started to crawl away from him. “I’m sorry! I’m sorry! I didn’t want to do this! Please don’t hurt me!”

Megatron’s optics narrowed. “What? You ask for mercy after all that bragging about how you were going to kill me?”

“Please! It wasn’t me!” the words came out of his mouth as he crawled away. “I didn’t have a choice! He forced me to do it!”

Anger was growing in Starscream’s spark. He couldn’t believe his younger self was admitting weakness to Megatron like this.

Confusion burrowed into Megatron’s features. “I have no idea what sort of insane plan this is of yours, but it ends now.”

Megatron lifted his weapon above his head and prepared to strike down. The seeker froze entirely. Starscream realised he wasn’t going to be getting out of the way, so he forcibly wrenched back control and activated their jet heels just as the mace came down where their spark chamber had been.

He flew back, flying clumsily until he hit the arena wall. He tried to think what he could do before realising he was trapped. He cradled his arm. Even as he started to regain his senses, he realised the battle was lost. Fighting with the lost arm was difficult enough, but his younger self was now so shaken he wouldn’t be any help in giving strategic backup. He growled as he realised there was nothing he could do.

“The fight is over now,” Megatron bellowed. “You have nowhere to go.”

Starscream stood up, raising his head as high as he could. “You’ll see Megatron! This will not be the last you see of me! We’ll meet again and when you do you will scream my name unto the stars!”

He hastily transformed and flew away, escaping from the top of the gladiatorial arena and into the night sky. His flight was off thanks to the missing limb, though.

_“I can’t believe that just happened. We nearly died… against Megatron of all people!”_

“We failed, but we won’t next time.”

_“You can’t be serious!”_

“I am serious! Somehow or another Megatron will die by my hand!”

_“What about my arm? What are you going to do about that?”_

“Don’t worry. I will sort it out.” He bristled, angry at how this had all gone. Angry at Megatron, angry at his younger self, and angry with just how badly wrong everything had gone.

-

They stopped at a hospital. Starscream made up some story about getting mistakenly dragged into a gang fight. The medics looked at him incredulously, but they didn’t ask any further after he bribed them with some of the remaining chips he had.

He got fitted with a new arm pretty quickly, but it was painted a bland normal grey. It’d take a while before his programming would integrate with it and its shape would properly fit the rest of his frame, and he’d have to get a new paint job. He looked down at it as a symbol of his disappointing expedition.

He leaned his head back on the medical berth, giving a disappointed sigh.

_“That was a complete nightmare!”_

“Shut up,” he snapped.

_“You nearly got me killed. You lost my arm. Threw away a fortune for a stupid scheme. Great job you’ve done so far improving my future.”_

“I told you to shut up. Primus, I am sick to death of you.”

_“At the very least, you’ve inspired me to not turn into as big an idiot as you.”_

Starscream growled. “How dare you. We’ll just have to try again some other time.”

_“Sure, because it went so well the first time.”_

He’d have to change his strategy. Maybe it’d be better if he waited until Megatron had already started the Decepticon movement, amassed an army and done all the hard work for him, and then Starscream simply had to backstab him before he became too powerful and things would be easy. Simple.

-

Starscream made his way back to the academy the moment he was discharged from the hospital. He used up the last of his chips trying to get his arm resprayed. Then he headed back, now in a sour mood. He had to put up with more complaining and grumbling from the voice in his head. He was sick to death of all this, a part of him wanted to crawl back into his berth and just recharge for the next five million years.

“Oh, Starscream!”

The seeker turned as he heard the delighted voice call to him, and he looked at the familiar large frame bounding towards him. Starscream couldn’t help but give a smile as Skyfire reached him. The shuttle leaned down to give him a quick kiss on his forehelm before he spoke.

“Star, I have some wonderful news.” His optics looked tired, but they were still clearly buzzing with energy.

“What is it?” Starscream smiled.

“My application for an off-world expedition went through. The academy has given us the go-ahead to explore a far-off solar system, it has several planets, and it looks like some of them are capable of hosting organic life. Imagine that? Our first expedition and we might actually be able to discover new species. We’ll be the first mechs to explore these planets. Won’t that be amazing?”

Starscream’s face dropped. No. No, it couldn’t be.

 _“What? What’s wrong?”_ he heard the young voice question.

“I still need to get some of the details about the trip, but we could be ready to go in a vorn’s time.”

Starscream should have said some pleasantry along the lines of ‘Oh good’ or ‘I’m so happy,’ but he couldn’t bring himself to say anything. The words sat on his glossa, and he found himself unable to process any answers. He could only react to shock horror at the words.

“Star? Are you alright?”

“I…” Starscream had no idea what to say. “Skyfire, please don’t go.”

Skyfire just gave a laugh. “You’re kidding, right? You were so excited about this just the other day. There’s no need to be nervous.” The smile on Skyfire’s face dropped when he saw that Starscream’s expression hadn’t changed. “Star, you know what this means to us… Why are you nervous?”

Starscream simply stared at him, unable to say a word.

Skyfire patted Starscream on the shoulder. “Are you worried about the space travel? Don’t worry, I’ve got that all sorted out. I’ve put in an application; we’ll get upgrades for long-term interstellar travel before the trip. We’ll also need to take some medical courses so we can look after each other if either of us gets hurt. I actually took one while you were away; I know precisely what to do now in the case of spark resuscitation.” He gave a chuckle, “I just need to enroll you for one as well. Nothing can go wrong.”

Starscream reached forward and grabbed his arm. “No Skyfire, you can’t. You’re not listening.”

Skyfire pulled back from Starscream, looking concerned. “Star, what’s wrong with you? You don’t look well.”

“Skyfire, we can do something else! Anything but that! Please!”

“Starscream! I don’t know what’s got into you. You know how long it took me to get all this together,” Skyfire said, looking disappointed at his friend. “I can see you’re not feeling well. We can talk about this later.”

With that Skyfire walked away, though he glanced back, clearly worried about Starscream.

The seeker thought about calling for him, but he wasn’t sure how to convince Skyfire to change his mind.

“He can’t go…” he whispered to himself.

 _“This is the planet where it all goes wrong?”_ the young voice said.

“Yes… I need to convince Skyfire this is the wrong thing to do.”

He could feel how uncomfortable the young seeker was with that statement.

_“You can’t! It’s our dream. Skyfire will never listen. Nothing’s going to deter him from visiting that planet.”_

Starscream thought, he had to think of something.

“Then I’ll just have to take measures into my own hands…”

 _“Wait! What are you going to do?”_ the voice spoke with a level of fear. _“Tell me what you’re going to do!”_

Starscream only grinned. “You’ll see soon enough. Let’s go back home right now.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Friday: Starscream betrays Skyfire. It no longer matters what he has to do, or what it will do to Skyfire, he is going to stay on Cybertron.


	6. Starscreams betrayal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Starscream has already decided what he's going to do, and it doesn't matter so long as Skyfire stays on Cybertron. He's going to do whatever he can to save him.
> 
> Thanks to HiddenDirector for proofreading this.

Starscream got back to his hab suite and got out the datapad he had used to hack into his classmate's assignment. He started the process of breaking into the Iaconian computers again. It was so much easier this time, years of performing all these sorts of operations during the war made the simple firewalls of the academy seem easy.

After only a few moments he was looking at Skyfire’s submission for the exploration program.

 _“What are you doing?”_ the young voice said, genuinely trembling.

“I’m going to make sure Skyfire stays on this planet once and for all.” And with that Starscream started deleting the details of the form.

_“No! Stop! You can’t!”_

“Just watch me.” Starscream didn’t stop until all the information on the application had disappeared. Then he started picking away at all the extra forms Skyfire had filled in. The request for interstellar upgrades, the requests for extra equipment, the energon rations submission. All of the hours of painstaking effort were gone with just a click of a button. All of it was wiped away clean. Starscream then started deleting the letters of recommendation their teachers had submitted for them. In his head was nothing but panicked screeches.

 _“No! No! No! Please!”_ The voice begged him. _“This means everything to us! You can’t do this! Stop!”_

“It’s the only way to be sure. I don’t want him to go anywhere near that accursed planet. I want him to stay here by my side!”

_“There’s got to be another way!”_

“There isn’t.”

_“Then I won’t let this happen.”_

Starscream jolted as his hands froze. The datapad slipped out of his servos and fell to the ground. He snarled as he tried to reach forward to pick it up, but he couldn’t move.

“Stop. This.”

_“No. I’m not going to let you ruin Skyfire’s future.”_

“You insolent idiot. I! Must! Do this!”

_“Never!”_

Starscream hated hearing that stubborn attitude come from himself. He was sick to death of him. Why couldn’t his younger self just see he was doing everything for their own good!

“If Skyfire goes to this planet… you’ll lose him…” He stuttered out as he felt his other self fighting to get control. “He’ll turn on you… and never come back to you… this is the only way to stop it from happening!”

 _“I… I won’t!”_ The other version started to stumble.

“Do you want to save Skyfire?”

_“I can’t do this to him!”_

“Do you _want_ to save Skyfire?”

The younger Starscream paused. So he let him see some of the memories, he let him see him and Skyfire fighting against each other, shooting at each other on the battlefield. Then he showed him Skyfire’s stunned face as he fell after Starscream had fired a bolt into his chest.

The memories left the young seeker in stunned silence, and that moment’s hesitation was all he needed. He felt the presence of younger self in his mind and grabbed it, finally bundling him up and stuffing him away deep in his head behind several firewalls so he wouldn’t have to hear that annoying voice getting in the way of everything. He stuffed the voice into a part of his mind where he could no longer do anything at all.

Starscream breathed a sigh of relief as he finally beheld silence, no more annoying interruptions in his body. It was bliss. He should have done this ages ago. He’d only allowed the seeker this much freedom because he felt some sort of pity for his younger self. But now he could do things without interruption.

“You can come out when you’ve learned to behave,” he said. Then he grabbed the data pad and finished the job. Finally, it was all done. Skyfire wasn’t going anywhere now.

-

Starscream met Skyfire the next day at the academy. His mood had improved considerably since the previous day. He felt a sense of bliss now, one that came with the absolute certainty that everything was going to go perfectly.

As he saw Skyfire, he gave the mech a friendly smile. “Hello, Skyfire. I’m so sorry about my outburst yesterday. I don’t know what came over me.”

Skyfire gave him one of his big, trusting smiles. “It’s no worry, Starscream, I’m glad you’re feeling better. I do understand these things can be quite overwhelming sometimes.”

“It was probably just some stress from my trip. It was a bit hectic for me.”

“I’m sorry to hear that. I hope everything went alright.”

“Well, I didn’t manage to sort everything out, but I’ll do so very soon.”

“That’s good to hear.”

They walked down the academy halls, happily talking to each other as they went. Skyfire talked about some of the discoveries he was hoping they would make. Starscream listened to all of it with a sly, dismissive smile. Had he ever really cared this much about exploring the universe? For him, it had been so long ago. He’d given up his hopes of science once he’d realised how horribly the system had been stacked against him. He hadn’t cared about science for several million years. Only becoming the leader of the Decepticons mattered to him now, and this time he’d have Skyfire ruling by his side. That was the perfect future. That was the one he was going to get now. He’d keep Skyfire as close to him as possible. He’d never let him leave.

Starscream leaned into Skyfire’s side as the shuttle continued talking about stupid things that didn’t matter. But Starscream just nodded and kept going along with it. Skyfire was his now.

He was interrupted in his musings when Skyfire suddenly left his side. He pointed over to one of their lecturers. “Just a minute, Star, I just need to talk to the Professor.”

Starscream stayed where he was, silently watching as Skyfire went over and talked to the science frame. Skyfire talked in his normal exuberant tone. “…I was just wondering if it’d be possible to ask you about some of the equipment we’ll be allowed to take with us on the expedition.”

“I’m sorry. I won’t be able to help you with that, Skyfire.”

“What? Why not?”

“You didn’t bother to fill in any of the submission forms.”

“What?” Skyfire asked, a laugh of disbelief in his voice. “You must be joking. I submitted everything last night.”

“Sorry, Skyfire. There hasn’t been a single thing we’ve received the past cycle. You haven’t submitted a thing.”

“That’s impossible. I finished everything last night. It all went through, I’m sure of it.”

“I didn’t receive anything.”

Panic started to enter Skyfire’s voice. “Can you check? It must have got through. I got a notification saying all my applications had been received.”

The teacher sighed as he pulled out a datapad and scrolled through its results. Skyfire watched intently, his gaze never once flickering from the screen.

“No, sorry. There’s been nothing. Sorry, Skyfire.” And with that the teacher walked away, leaving the shuttle looking despondent.

Starscream sauntered over to him and patted him on the shoulder. “Oh dear, Skyfire, I’m so very sorry…” He said, trying to keep the elation out of his voice. Skyfire wasn’t looking at him and didn’t notice the smile that settled on his lips. “Such a shame.”

“I don’t understand…” Skyfire said. “I did everything. It all went through… how could it have just gone?”

“Are you really sure you did submit it all?”

“I did! I’m certain! I went through every single file.”

“Maybe you did it all wrong somehow? When I saw you yesterday you looked really tired, maybe you only thought you had done everything?”

“But I was so sure. The deadline’s today, if I don’t fill in the submission, then we won’t have the chance to do it again.”

“Oh no, that’d be so terrible.” It seemed Skyfire was so distraught he didn’t notice how painfully fake Starscream’s words had been.

“There’s too much to do, and I don’t have the time. It took me cycles of getting all of them done. I don’t think I’ll be able to do it all again before the deadline closes.”

“Oh dear Skyfire, if only I hadn’t gone away. It’s so clear you’ve been too overworked and messed the whole thing up. It doesn’t seem like there’s anything that can be done.”

Skyfire’s processor was clearly overrunning trying to figure out how this had all gone wrong.

“Skyfire,” Starscream said, cupping Skyfire’s face in his hands and turning him to face him. “Why don’t we go somewhere else? Somewhere we can relax. We can try and find a solution to this.”

Skyfire looked around in confusion, trying to think of something, but clearly devising nothing. “Yes… that might work. I really was sure I did everything. I thought I had it all sorted out.”

“We’ll try and figure this out. If we can’t… well, maybe this was all a bit too rushed. You tried to do too much at once. We can always apply again for this later.”

Of course, he had no intention of letting that happen, but it did placate Skyfire a little. “Let’s go and try and sort this out… that’s the best thing to do.”

“Very good, just follow me.” And so Starscream led the way. He had Skyfire exactly where he wanted him.

-

They took the short walk to their shared lab in the academy. It was quicker than going back to either of their apartments. The walk over had been unpleasantly quiet, but Starscream was determined that he would make this all work. He’d make Skyfire forget all about his stupid expedition.

He led Skyfire over to sit on a chair, practically guiding him by the shoulder. Skyfire sat down, still staring out a bit. He ran his hands across his forehelm.

“I just don’t understand how it all could have gotten lost,” Skyfire said. “I was sure I did everything right.”

“You must have messed it up. To be fair, you have been very stressed over the past couple of cycles.”

“Have I?” Skyfire asked, obviously thinking through this past couple of weeks.

“Yes, trust me. You just haven’t been able to see it. I’ll sort it all out though.” Starscream gave Skyfire a little kiss on the lips. “Why don’t I get us some energon? I believe I had some stored away. It might help to calm you down.”

“Yes… of course…” Skyfire said, still despondent.

Starscream felt around in his subspace, taking out his datapad and a laser scalpel and a few other bits, but he’d apparently forgotten any spare energon rations. He placed all his things down on the table and then headed over to the place where he had his hidden storage unit in the lab. He found a few hidden energon cubes in there. Perfect, that would do for now.

A smile was still on his lips as he got the rations. Now all he had to do was wait. Skyfire would stay here. They’d be able to stay together now as the war would slowly come to pass. Starscream would see to it that Skyfire would never even think of leaving him.

As he turned around, he found Skyfire had moved from the chair and was now by his desk, examining the datapad he had left there. The same one he had used the night before.

Skyfire was flicking through its contents when he stopped and looked up at Starscream. “I just found something very interesting,” he said, his voice was surprisingly cold.

“Oh yes, Skyfire?” Starscream said, worried by the tone.

“This is the datapad you used to hack into the records and sabotage that centrifuges essay, isn’t it?” Skyfire asked. “And I just decided to check how easy it’d be to use this to look at the academy submission forms.”

A chill went through Starscream’s frame.

“I did submit everything. I did it all on time, but the records made it look like I’d never done anything at all. It makes no sense really that there wasn’t even so much of an error message about it… unless someone decided to delete the thing entirely.”

Starscream put the energon drinks down. “Now Skyfire…”

“You did, didn’t you? You’re the only one who could have gotten rid of every trace of my application form. Why?” His voice and his hand trembled as he held the datapad. “Why did you do this, Starscream?”

Starscream stood there, not saying a word. He looked into Skyfire’s optics, seeing a low burning rage inside them. It was so rare to see that from the shuttle. “I had to, Skyfire.”

“What do you mean?”

“It was the only thing I could do. I had no other option.”

“ _No other option?_ You sabotaged my expedition, Starscream! What possible reason would you have for doing that?”

Starscream didn’t say anything. His face remained impassive. “You can’t go on that expedition, Skyfire,” he said calmly.

“What do you mean, Starscream?” Skyfire spoke through gritted dentae.

“You can’t go to Earth. This will only end badly for you.”

“Earth? I’ve never even heard of that place! What are you talking about?”

“I can’t tell you.”

“What do you mean you can’t tell me? This means everything to me, I thought it meant something to you too and you’re not even going to give me an explanation!”

“I did this to keep you safe. You have to stay here on Cybertron.”

“What are you talking about?”

Starscream groaned. This was getting him nowhere. He reached out to take Skyfire’s servo. “You just need you to understand, this is all for your own good.”

Skyfire yanked his servo away, staring down at Starscream with utter contempt. “I can’t believe you… You ruin everything I’ve worked for behind my back and then tell me it’s all for my own good?” Skyfire turned around. “I’m done. Goodbye Starscream, I never want to see you again.”

The panic leapt up in Starscream’s spark. This wasn’t how things were supposed to go! Skyfire couldn’t leave him. He ran to Skyfire, grabbing his arm. “Everything I’ve done has been for you, you fool! I’m trying to protect you!”

Skyfire shoved him off and continued to walk away. No. It wasn’t going to end like this. His null-ray slid out from the concealed plating, and Starscream pointed the weapon at him.

“I’m sorry, Skyfire,” he said. He then fired a bolt, hitting the larger mech. Skyfire lurched forward from the blast and fell to the ground, his optics going offline.

Starscream calmly walked over to the unconscious mech and crouched beside him. He lightly brushed his servo over Skyfire’s face. “You’ll see in the end, this really is for your own good.”

He was going to see this through. He was going to make this work. He had to. No one was going to stop him now.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next Friday: The finale, Starscream has one last chance to convince Skyfire of his intentions. It's his last chance to fix his future. There's no turning back now.
> 
> Both the last chapters will be posted up simultaneously next week, which will be the final chapter and the epilogue.


	7. The Point of No Return

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks to HiddenDirector for proofreading this chapter and helping to make some moments in this really shine. It's been such a big help all the way through.
> 
> And now onto the final chapter... (Comments and Kudos are appreciated)

Starscream leaned his hand against the door. He’d locked the door to the lab, and shut off any security cameras. Nobody from outside would know what was going on in here now. No one could get in. It was just him and Skyfire.

He turned around and faced the unconscious mech. He still hadn’t woken up from the null ray blast, and that had given Starscream plenty of time to prepare. After making sure there was no chance of anyone to break in or interrupt them, he’d made sure that when Skyfire were to wake up, he wouldn’t be able to do anything.

He’d taken a set of metal beams and using a heat ray had managed to twist them around Skyfire’s arms behind his back. He’d wrapped another set around Skyfire’s legs. Even if he did wake up, he wouldn’t be going anywhere.

He had to keep Skyfire here until he could make him understand.

Starscream sighed.

It wasn’t supposed to go this way.

Skyfire wasn’t supposed to leave him. He was meant to stay beside his side forever. Why had it gone wrong? Starscream had one last chance to fix this. He wasn’t going to let Skyfire out of this room until he could make him see he was doing this for both their benefit. Then everything would go right, and his future would turn out better than he had ever dreamed of.

Starscream was distracted in his musings as he heard Skyfire stir. He was coming back online. Starscream was by his side in an instant. He brushed his servos across Skyfire’s faceplates. “Oh, Skyfire…”

“Star?” His optics looked hazy as they were still recalibrating. “Star, what happened?”

Skyfire tried to sit up and felt the bonds on the arms. His optics lit up quickly as he looked down and noticed the restraints. He kept trying to tug at them, but they held. Starscream’s hand fell to his side.

“Try not to struggle, you won’t be getting out of here in a hurry.”

“Starscream?” Skyfire mumbled. He tugged on the bands again. “What’s going on? Why have you done this?”

“I told you, my friend. I’m doing this all for your own good.”

“For my own good?” Skyfire shook his restraints to make a point. “How can you tell me this is for my own good?”

“I’m trying to save you from the future. I just need you to listen. I can’t let you go on your expedition, Skyfire. Things will all go wrong after that.”

“Star, please, something’s wrong with you. Your circuitry’s glitched or something, you’re not behaving like yourself.”

Starscream laughed. “The Starscream you know isn’t here right now.”

“What do you mean?” Skyfire asked.

“Essentially, I’ve been in control of his body for the past few cycles now, and you didn’t even notice. Still, I can’t blame you, though. I mean, no one could do a more flawless impression of him than me.”

Skyfire’s optics widened in shock. “What? What have you done to him? If you’ve hurt him-”

“Oh, I assure you I’d never do that. I would never do anything to hurt him. I’m trying to do quite the opposite in fact. I’m trying to save both of you from your own futures.”

“What?”

“Well, I can try and tell you, but you probably won’t believe me. I am Starscream, and I’m also from the future. Let me just say it goes rather badly, so I’m doing what I can to avoid that. That’s why I had to do this, Skyfire.”

“What? What do you mean? You sound mad.”

“I’m telling the truth. I came all this way from the future, and I decided I was going to sort everything out. Where I’m from everything goes very wrong for your lovely little Star. You go missing after your little adventure in space and then he’ll come back to Cybertron, pained and heartbroken, then a war will break out. All this tension with the Senate and the Functionists, it’ll reach a breaking point, and then your Star will spend the next few million years being kicked under heel by a tyrant. And then just when I thought something good would happen, I died. I was brutally killed by the very tyrant I thought I’d gotten rid of. Is that what you want to happen? That’s what the future’s got in stock for both of you.”

Skyfire looked at him in shock, clearly trying to process everything that he’d just been told. Starscream gave him a moment.

“It all started after your little trip to Earth. Everything went wrong after that point. Everything in my life went completely wrong after I lost you. That’s why I had to sabotage your expedition. As long as you stay on Cybertron, you’ll be okay. No matter what, Skyfire, you need to stay here.”

“Are you… are you really telling the truth?” Skyfire said, disbelief in his optics was still clear, but it was clear Starscream was getting through to him.

“I am, Skyfire. I just need to get through to you. I just want to make you see. I’m trying to make things better this time, for both of you. If you go then I will never get to see you again.”

“Do… do I die?”

Starscream considered what would make Skyfire stay.

“Yes.”

“He’s lying!”

Starscream suddenly lurched forward, grabbing his head. Skyfire started to panic.

“Starscream?”

Starscream looked up at him. He felt a vulnerable panic staring at Skyfire through his optics.

“You don’t die! Something happens to you, he won’t tell me, but you don’t die Sky, I’m sor-SHUT UP! BE SILENT!” Starscream put his hand over his mouth, attempting to muffle the other Starscream as he kept talking. The other version still kept trying to talk, however, and he heard his words still mumble through his hand. He needed to stop this infernal prattle.

Instead, he bit down on his arm, muffled words still tried to get through as his dentae dug into his plating. He kept biting down until he drew energon, and then the resistance subsided as the pain increased.

Starscream let go and leaned back, a long sigh coming from his vents before he turned his head and looked back at Skyfire. “Now, where were we?”

Skyfire looked at him in horror, almost petrified for a moment before he spoke.  “Give me my friend back!”

“I can’t until I make both of you see reason!” Starscream screeched back.

“This isn’t reasonable!” Skyfire tugged at his restraints again for show. “Not a part of any of this is reasonable!”

“Why did you always have to be so stubborn, Skyfire?!” Starscream shouted. “Why do both of you have to keep arguing against me? Why can’t you both just see I’m doing it for your own good?”

“After I’ve just seen how you’re keeping my friend a prisoner, I won’t believe for a second you care about anyone’s good at all.”

“Why you-” Starscream’s rage got the better of him as he smacked his hand across Skyfire’s face. “After everything I’ve done for you!”

He felt his arms tense up and freeze again as his younger self-made another desperate bid to take control of his body. Damn that young seeker. He wasn’t going to let him do this. He started to lift up his null ray and pointed it towards Skyfire.

The shuttle braced himself as the bolt fired, but it tore through the metal binding his arms and the shuttle hastily scrambled to get up, trying to remove the ones around his legs.

“Damn you! Damn you both!” Starscream shouted. “Why do you both have to be so uncooperative?”

Starscream had to stop Skyfire from running away, but he felt his other self fight against him, and he fell down again.

“Why do you have to keep getting in my way?!”

_“Because I’m not letting you ruin everything for us!”_

“I’m not! Why can’t you see that?”

He looked over as Skyfire stood up, snapping the metal around his legs and kicking it off. He ran to the door and tried to punch in the code only to find it locked. He started banging on the door and calling for help. Starscream had to stop him. He lifted the null ray and fired again, missing Skyfire but hitting the control console next to him. A set of sparks went flying, and Skyfire ran somewhere else into the lab.

Starscream struggled to pick himself up. He could feel his stupid younger self struggling against him every step of the way.

“Stop. This!” he growled.

_“Never! I am not letting you hurt Skyfire!”_

Starscream stopped arguing with him. He focused on his mind. Now the young seeker was out in the open, it was easy to grab hold of him and keep him in place.

“I’ll have to try this again.” And with that Starscream bundled him up and threw into a tiny disused part of his processor. He put up a new set of firewalls to stop from being able to get out this time. He couldn’t deal with him properly right now, but it would keep the seeker out of his way for the moment.

Now he could finally deal with Skyfire.

He spun around and pointed his weapon at Skyfire. The shuttle froze and lifted up his servos in surrender.

“Now… I’ve got your little Star back under control, so now you’re going to be very quiet and listen what I have to say.”

“I don’t believe anything you’re going to say has any value to me. You just seem like a tyrant and a bully.”

“I am going to be the one that saves you and makes all your futures better. I can give us the opportunity to rule Cybertron together.”

“Rule Cybertron? I don’t know why you’d think I’d ever be interested in that. You sound even more deluded than I previously thought.”

“Don’t test me, Skyfire. I’ve sacrificed everything to get here, and I am not going to let this opportunity slip out of my grasp again.”

-

Starscream felt himself flung far back into the recesses of his mind. He looked around at the empty darkness and realised he could do nothing. He let out a silent scream to himself. After all that, he was still helpless. He’d tried his hardest and only been able to take control of his body for a few seconds. He was helpless; he couldn’t do anything to save Skyfire or himself.

He was stuck in this cage.

_‘Soundwave, Bombshell, activate the cage!’_

He looked up to find he was suddenly on the bridge of a ship. An electro-cage sprung up around where he was now standing.

“You can’t keep me in here Megatron!” he shouted to the imposing figure before him, before he screamed in frustration.

‘I don’t see why not. That cage was something I rigged up for the Autobots, but I’d like you to have it.’

Starscream stared in bewilderment. Where was he? This must have been a moment in the other Starscream’s memories. Somewhere at the edge of his hearing, he could hear himself and Skyfire arguing. Their fight was still going on. He’d barely been able to access the other Starscream’s memories before, but now he was distracted, it seems he had free reign. Maybe in here, there was some way to wrench control. If he found a memory powerful enough…

He turned to Megatron, in a much bigger and more imposing form than Starscream had ever seen him in. And then he remembered the sheer level of both hate and terror that had sprouted forth every time his other self had even so much as thought of the mech.

“Oh, Megatron!” Starscream sang. The mech turned to face him. “You’re a complete slagging idiot, and that bucket on your head looks like it’s made of tinfoil.”

Starscream was suddenly knocked back by a large a powerful fist smashing into his face. He was now in some sort of desert. He barely had time to react as a servo wrapped around his neck and lifted him off his feet. The grip around his neck tightened and choked him.

‘Cross me again, Starscream, and I’ll reduce you to titanium fragments.’

Starscream kept choking as he tried to claw at the hand around his neck. He tried to splutter out some excuse for whatever he had done, and then Megatron threw him to the ground.

Starscream looked up at Megatron as a flash of lightning appeared behind him, silhouetting his giant terrifying frame.

‘This time you have dared too much, Starscream!’ the memory changed again, but he still found himself on the ground staring up at Megatron’s cannon as it was aimed right at him. ‘You must pay the price for your insolence!’

He flinched as the cannon fired and the blast tore through his arm. He let out a scream.

-

Starscream suddenly stopped and pulled back, a memory flashed before his eyes, the image of Megatron firing his cannon at him. He was disorientated for a second and Skyfire lunged forward, grabbing his arms and lifting them above his head, holding them in place.

“Damn you!” Starscream shouted as he started kicking and screaming.

Starscream fired a bolt from his null ray and Skyfire jumped back. The stray bolt blew out the light and sparks flew down from the ceiling. As Skyfire raised his arms to shield himself, he released his grip on Starscream. The seeker leapt at the shuttle, jamming the gun barrel into Skyfire’s neck and pushing him over. He leaned over the shuttle as he continued to press the gun against him.

“You always turn against me! You were meant to love me, but no matter what happens you always betray me! I just wanted to make things right this time! I was going to save you!”

He started to power up the weapon.

“Now I see you don’t deserve it!”

- 

Starscream crawled along the ground, trying to recover from the last laser blast he took to his gut. He had to get away…

He felt a foot slam down on the gash in his wings, and he gave out a cry.

‘What’s the matter, Starscream? You were boasting just a second ago,’ the taunting voice called.

“I… I’m sorry, Megatron… please… don’t…”

‘You haven’t even begun to feel my wrath.’

Starscream smiled. “Good…”

-

He was assaulted by another flash of memories as the image of his wings being torn off appeared before him. He reached back, grabbing his missing wing even though it was still there.

“Sky! Run!” he heard himself shout.

Skyfire pushed him off and ran away, disappearing off in the lab. Starscream pressed his servo to his head as he regained control. “Stop that!”

_“Never!”_ he heard own voice tauntingly call.

He looked around. Where was Skyfire? His scanners kept blinking out, and with the broken light, it was hard to see anything in here. Only a small portion of the lab room was lit up anymore. He couldn’t see Skyfire anywhere. Dammit, how could someone as big as Skyfire just sneak around?

“Skyfire…” he growled. “Where are you? You Autobot traitor.”

“I don’t even know what an Autobot is,” Skyfire called from somewhere. Starscream stood up, stumbling, his processor spinning as more memories spiked through his head. He waved his null ray around at any vague shape.

“I’ll… I’ll find you… I just wanted us to be together… there’s a war coming, Skyfire… do you want to be frozen for it or by my side?”

“I’ll be right beside my Starscream, but I will never be beside someone like you.”

Starscream growled. He rubbed his hand over his spark plating, which now felt like it was burning. It was hard, fighting against himself at the same time. He clenched his teeth and focused on his mind.

-

It was getting harder for Starscream to stay hidden. He could tell the other presence was searching for him now. He kept moving from memory to memory. But he could tell with each terrible memory he was able to dredge up the ghost lost a tiny bit more of his control. He had to find something, an even worse memory to try and bolt the presence from his body.

He leapt into another memory without looking. He could feel something terrible lurking there.

He found himself looking at a timer he’d placed on a wall. A grin came over his face as he watched the numbers count down.

“Alright, Doctor, come in and marvel at my ingenuity. I’ve improved your exponential generator by interfacing it with a timing device. When I flip this switch, it will begin building power to infinite capacity,” he said.

‘Infinite capacity? But it will explode and destroy the entire Earth!’

“Very good Doctor,” he said to the organic in a patronising tone. “You understand perfectly.”

The memories came together, and he started to understand what was going on. Megatron was dead, or so he believed, and he had decided to abandon his teammates, the entire planet and even… Skyfire, to their doom. He would destroy this planet, and he would go back to Cybertron alone to rule over it. All his compassion eroded away as he thought only of his success. He would achieve all of his dreams. He would be the ruler of all of Cybertron!

The organic started complaining about his plan. Starscream had decided to toy with it. He took it back with him to Cybertron, taunting it the entire way. It had injured itself when it had tried to stop him, and so Starscream had ordered it to be experimented on. He left it in partially robotized and unable to move, and he’d taken sadistic glee in watching it stuck and helpless like this.

Starscream wasn’t sure how to comprehend all this. He didn’t want to see this side of himself that was so obsessed with power that he had forgotten everything else. But despite how the memories carried on, he pushed through. There was something waiting for him at the end of this trail.

The plan hadn’t worked for some reason. He’d had to make the journey back to Earth to find the source of the problem. Something shot past him and then exploded. Knocking him off his course, he’d crashed onto the Earth, and then as he got up, a terrifying figure stood above him.

‘Welcome home, noble voyager!’

“Megatron… I thought you were… I mean everybody was sure you… I… I…” Then Megatron had grabbed him and pulled him away.

Then the torture began. It had been the longest torture he’d received from Megatron yet, for the extent of his betrayal. It had dragged for months, but in here it all blurred into one sharp moment. All of it compounded into one single instance as pain scrambled through and shook his entire body.

-

Starscream screamed one long, never-ending scream; every part of his body was wracked with searing pain as the memories flashed in his optics. No! Not that! He couldn’t take it all again!

His frame collapsed to the ground, falling into a heap. Smoke came from his vents.

He felt control slipping away from him under the numbness of the pain. It was all that stupid young seeker’s fault. He was trying to ruin everything! All of this would have worked if it weren’t for his meddling.

That was it. He was going to put an end to this once and for all. He’d find that seeker and tear him to pieces. He should have done that since the start, just made it, so it was him and him alone in this body, with no one to stop him.

-

The younger seeker had managed to regain control of his body, though only just for a few seconds. That last blast of memories had been enough to cause the other presence to recede, just for a moment. But now that he had control of his body, it was almost too painful to move.

“Starscream? Are you okay?” He heard Skyfire’s voice from somewhere.

He tore at his spark, feeling like it would explode as the two forces inside his head continued to fight over it. He finally saw Skyfire standing above him, clearly still unsure about whether to approach him. But he came closer as he saw Starscream in agony, and distress was strewn all over the shuttles face.

“Sky…” Starscream whispered, and finally, the shuttle took a step forward, gazing down at him, clearly not sure what to do.

He said something, but Starscream couldn’t hear. He could feel his spark as though it was threatening to explode.

He could still feel the other presence there. It was inside him, and it would take over his body soon enough. He couldn’t stop it alone. He pressed the mechanisms on his chestplate and his plating slid open, revealing his spark underneath. Skyfire stared at it, at first in confusion. Then his optics flicked, and Starscream could tell he was running through the medical programming he’d been imprinted with. After the code stopped, he turned to Starscream and gave an affirmative nod.

They both had a plan now.

-

The younger seeker retreated back into his memories, and he could sense his other self was coming for him now. He’d taken to running away. He kept flittering from memory to memory, doing whatever he could to hide. He had no idea where he was going, so he simply followed any stray thought or stream of consciousness he could find. He had ended up going down a trail of Starscream’s war memories. Going from battle to battle, he didn’t have time to focus on all the people he’d murdered. He saw Iacon burning and felt a wave of satisfaction that it was all by his hand. He tried not to focus on that too much as he dived into another memory to stay hidden.

He appeared on the deck of a ship, and there was a row of prisoners kneeling before him, each of them cuffed and bloodied. One of them reached out to him and begged him to spare his life, and Starscream hadn’t even looked as he had shot him in the face.

He passed through so many of these memories. Deaths, executions, and tortures, all of them he was responsible for. So many that the faces all came out faded and blurred, he had killed so many he couldn’t even remember anymore. The horror of it all threatened to engulf him if he didn’t keep on going.

“Fellow Decepticons!” he announced to a crowd of wounded warriors. He knew them from the other memories, the Decepticons. They had just come back from a raid on Autobot City. It had gone badly, half their numbers were injured, including Megatron. Starscream knew that this was his chance to take control, so he began his grand speech. “Astrotrain has requested that we lighten our burden.”

He was suggesting that they get rid of the ones in their crew who were injured.

‘In that case, I say it is survival of the fittest!’ one of the mechs shouted.

“Do I hear a second on that?” he said.

‘AYE!’ came a triumphant cheer.

“And against?”

‘Nay…’ came a shaky chorus from his wounded teammates.

“The aye’s have it!” he smiled.

The soldiers all started to push the wounded crewmates to the spaceship's airlock. The wounded ones didn’t have the strength to push back against them as they were thrown out one by one into the vacuum of space. Starscream watched the whole thing with a satisfied smile. This was it. This was everything he’d ever wanted. He felt a surge of victory in his spark as triumph was finally in his grasp.

‘Wait! Screamer! You can’t!’ One of them grabbed his leg. A blue seeker, with scars and burns all over his body, and a desperate pleading look in his flickering optics as he looked up at him. Starscream recognised him from the other memories as a member of his trine, a comrade that had been with him throughout the war. Starscream only looked at him with a sneer and casual disgust.

“As soon-to-be leader, I think you’ll find I can.” And Starscream kicked him off, shoving him out the airlock and into space with the rest of them. The mechs optics stayed on him in an expression of surprise and horror, and for all this Starscream felt nothing but elation and pride. Finally, he had won; he’d gotten everything he had strived for.

It made him feel sick.

This couldn’t be the person he’d become… so uncaring and callous, someone who’d murder his own trine and teammates just to achieve his goals.

But there was another sensation lurking at the end of this memory. Dread, fear, horror. Something that terrified him to his very core, so terrible it threatened to shatter him apart. But it wasn’t because of this moment… it was because of what came after.

Finally, after all this time, the young seeker gave a smile of his own.

“I found it…”

He decided not to stick around as he went to chuck out Megatron’s body as well, but he leapt straight into the next memory. Just in time as he felt a presence behind him.

-

“I found you.”

Starscream had located the troublesome seeker, the insignificant, weak version of himself. He approached like a storm cloud, a raging presence that would engulf everything in its path. He’d nearly been forced out by some of the memories he’d experienced, but he had him cornered now. “I offered you the chance to make everything better, and you try and turn on me.”

“I’ve seen what you are. I’m going to promise to never become you, even if just out of spite.”

“You don’t understand a thing. All of this is your own doing. These are all decisions you’re going to make. I would have given you the chance to do this together, but now, I’m going to tear your spark from this body and settle here. It’s too late now.”

“Oh, you’d think that, but I think whilst rummaging around that I just found the perfect thing to get rid of you once and for all,” the younger Starscream smirked.

“Hah! You’re bluffing. I’ve already lived through Megatron’s tortures for millions of years. Reliving them again is nothing. They’re just mere distractions. Nothing you can do will scare me. You’ll never get me out of here.”

“Oh, that’s what you think,” the smaller Starscream stepped back and gave a mocking bow. “You look resplendent, by the way.”

Starscream paused and then he saw he was wearing a cape. He was about to talk again when he felt something placed on his head. He looked up to see Astrotrain had placed a crown on his head.

“Oh no… Oh no…”

‘Coronation, Starscream? This is bad comedy.’

He turned around. Galvatron was standing there. Starscream found himself rooted to the spot in fear.

“Your crowning moment, I believe,” he heard his younger self mock.

“No…”

“I feel this is nothing you wouldn’t do.”

He tried to think of something else, some other memory he could escape to, but his mind drew a blank in panic. He could feel the other seeker forcing him to stay and watch this all play out again.

“This is what’s in store for you if you proceed without my help!” Starscream shouted in desperation.

“Then I’ll make my own mistakes, but I don’t want your help. You can leave and never come back!”

Without another word, Galvatron transformed, and his cannon aimed directly at Starscream’s body.

“In that case, you can stay with me, and we’ll both go through this together.”  Starscream reached out and held his younger counterpart and pulled him into the role with him before he could escape.

When the cannon fired, it felt as if it hit both of them at the same time. The two of them felt the full force of the blast. The bolt surged through their circuits, turning their body into stone and starting to crumble underneath. It was too much for him, the pain causing him to lose control. He couldn’t keep his grip on the young seeker's body, and his spark was wrenched away.

-

The sheer pain overloaded the young Starscream’s spark. He’d experienced too much pain in one go already. As he felt out the simulated death of crumbling to pieces, he was suddenly convinced it was real. He thought he really was going to die. He couldn’t take it anymore.

His spark gave out from all the distress.

-

He was violently brought back by a surge of electricity through his spark. His frame lurched as the sting went through his body. Finally, he collapsed onto the ground, and the pain stayed as a dull throb that made everything too painful to move. He simply looked up at the ceiling, until he saw a bright blue pair of optics staring down at him.

“Star? Are you okay?” Skyfire’s voice said. He put down the medi-kit he’d been holding. He could see Skyfire trying to reach out for him, but hesitated as if he was still unsure. “Is it really you?”

Starscream had never felt so relieved to see that face. “Oh, Sky…” he mumbled weakly, trying to reach out a hand for him. “I’m so sorry…”

Skyfire gently took his hand. Starscream felt he hadn’t said enough.

“I couldn’t… I couldn’t stop him… I’m sorry.”

Skyfire scooped him up in his arms and cradled him close. Starscream didn’t have the energy to move, his head lulled forward to lean on Skyfire’s shoulder. He finally felt safe again in Skyfire’s arms.

“I’m so sorry, Star! I should have been able to tell something was wrong. All this time I never noticed.”

“Well, it was a pretty good impression of me,” Starscream laughed weakly. Skyfire just hugged him closer.

Starscream could feel that the other presence was finally gone. It had finally been banished from his mind, and there was no other force in his body. Starscream wondered if it was truly over or whether it had just run away somewhere. He wouldn’t be surprised if it was still out there somewhere. It had survived this long already. But for now it was gone, even though the aftermath of its actions lingered, and there were memories of a war still yet to come swimming in his head.

“Sky… I… I don’t want to be like him.”

“You won’t be, Star. You won’t be.”

“I might though…” Starscream whispered. As much as he had hated those memories, each one of them had rung true in an unsettling way. Everything he saw had been very _him_. The exact steps of how he’d gotten there had been missing, but he knew it was all something he could be capable of. “I saw things… I saw my future, and I did things… it all felt like it was necessary at the time but I’ve done so many terrible things.”

“You haven’t done anything yet. I won’t let them come to pass. I’ll be right beside you,” Skyfire said in a comforting voice.

Starscream smiled. “I never wanted to sabotage the expedition. I couldn’t stop him.”

“It’s alright. I’ve got you, that’s all I care about.”

“I’ll make up for it, somehow, I promise you, Sky.”

“Don’t worry right now, you need some rest. Things will be alright eventually.”

“Also, Skyfire…” Starscream repositioned himself away from the hug so he could look Skyfire directly in the optics. “I do want to go with you. That other me said something would go wrong, and we’d separated but… I want to be with you. Whatever happens, we’ll prove him wrong and make sure we do stay with each other this time.”

Skyfire gave a chuckle.

“Of course we will. Whatever happens, we’ll be together.”

They didn’t say any more to each other. Skyfire just held him close, and Starscream felt so exhausted, he just allowed himself to be held. Everything would be okay soon.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next part: Our Brand New World


	8. Epilogue

Afterward, they submitted the application again. Starscream managed to hack into the system to make it look like it had all been caused by a glitch with the academy’s submission process. And after Starscream kicked up a melodramatic fuss about the state of the academy’s computer processes, they were the ones apologising, and the application went through without a hitch. Soon they would be traveling to a bold new world, together.

-

They had traveled across the universe, visiting so many different planets, seeing so many things together, side by side. It had been everything Starscream had hoped for and more. He’d been able to admit his feelings for Skyfire properly this time, and they’d both stayed together, in love and traveling the universe.

He’d be so delighted by everything that had happened that he had forgotten that there was anything special to look out for about the next planet they were visiting. The one that was 70% covered in water and seemed to have quite a variety of ecosystems didn’t bring up any alarms in Starscream’s processor. Skyfire had simply wanted to take a closer look, and neither of them had been prepared when a sudden Arctic storm had sprung without any warning.

“SKYFIRE!” Starscream called, circling over the arctic wasteland. “SKYFIRE WHERE ARE YOU?”

Starscream had been thrown out of the edge of the storm by a gust of wind and had crashed into the snowy terrain. He’d tried to comm Skyfire but had gotten no response. He’d been careless… enjoying his time so much with Sky, he had forgotten to be wary of any danger on the planet's surface. It had looked so harmless from so far away.

Now he was stuck exactly where the other Starscream had warned he would be. Stuck on an alien world and he already knew Skyfire was trapped, and he would not be able to find him. Not dead, but…

No. It wasn’t going to happen again this time. Starscream kept circling and trying to track Skyfire, doing whatever he could to find a trace of his shuttle. If he went back to Cybertron without Skyfire… he had the feeling everything would go exactly the way he had seen it go before.

So he didn’t stop. He kept searching, well beyond what he should have. Just out of sheer spite to prove his future self wrong. He saw his energy meter state that he’d no longer have the energy to get back home. He didn’t care, and he pressed on. He was going to find Skyfire!

He didn’t stop, even after his fuel ran out and his energy levels were on critical. He was stumbling aimlessly through a thick gust of snow that now threatened to consume him as well. He was going to find Skyfire… he had to…

“Sky…” his voice cracked. “I’m so sorry…”

He’d failed. This was the end for him. As the last of his power ran out, he felt his systems going into deep stasis. His functions were shutting down one by one, as much as he willed them not to.

He hastily scrambled to pull out a distress beacon. No one was even close to this sector, but maybe, somehow it’d help.

He managed to activate it just as his servos locked, and then finally he collapsed into the snow as his systems shut down once and for all.

His last thoughts were of regret and how he had failed. He hadn’t saved Skyfire, he hadn’t even saved himself.

-

...

Starscream felt his systems come back online, very slowly. By some miracle, they were turning back on one by one, although the commands were slow to reach his processor. His limbs all felt heavy. As his optics came back on they weren’t calibrating anything, he just saw distorted shapes.

His audials clicked back on with a pop, and suddenly he was aware of noises again, voices talking amongst themselves and they all sounded too loud for his processor to handle. He gave out a static-laced groan.

“He’s awake!” an old voice said. Starscream turned his head and focused on the source of the noise. He saw a white and red chassis and in the middle of the robot's chest was a red symbol, one Starscream knew the meaning of even though it was the first time he laid eyes on it.

“Wh…” Starscream said.

“Don’t try to move, we’re just in the process of repairing you,” the medic said before he continued examining Starscream’s body. “Your frame has undergone extensive damage after being trapped in the ice.”

Starscream nodded in response to the medic’s words. But something else occurred to him.

“Sk…Sky…fire… I have a p…partner. He was… stuck in the ice too…”

“Don’t worry. We found him.”

Starscream laughed, he couldn’t believe it. It couldn’t be real could it?

“He’s fine, he’s just been recovering. You’re the one we were worried about actually. You almost didn’t make it. Your armour wasn’t as thick, so it’s undergone much heavier damage than his. You’re staying put until we know the repairs hold.”

Despite hearing that Starscream felt so relieved. Skyfire was safe! He was alive, and they were together!

“Oh, thank Primus,” Starscream said.

“Thank that distress beacon,” the medic huffed, “That was the only reason we found you. Needless to say, we were pretty surprised to see a Cybertronian signal all the way out in this planet’s Arctic Circle.”

Starscream didn’t say anything. He just smiled. There was a mech standing next to the medic, he was large, red, and blue. The mech almost radiated sincerity and authority. “Hello, my name is Optimus Prime,” the mech started.

“Yes, I know who you are,” Starscream nodded.

The bot looked at him in confusion. “How could you possibly know that?”

“’s a long story,” Starscream mumbled.

The mech stared at him in confusion but nodded. “We’ll do our best to see that the two of you are both repaired, until then, we shall look after you and do whatever we can to see you are safe and cared for.”

“Thank you, Prime…” Starscream said. With that Optimus left to go and talk to his medic. Starscream stared at them but his optics glazed over and he wasn’t really listening to what they were saying.

Some vague memories still swam in his head of him fighting against the Autobots. It left him feeling oddly conflicted about being rescued by them, but he knew those things had never happened now. Despite his apprehension, he knew he was safe here.

“Starscream?” His spark stuttered as he heard a familiar voice. He turned his head to the side, and there he saw Skyfire at the medbay’s entrance. His frame looked quite beaten, and his optics were tired, but he was standing there, and he was alive.

“Skyfire…” he tried to reach out his hand. Skyfire stepped forward and held it gently in both his servos, warmth radiated from his touch.

Starscream could look into those optics forever. Even dull and clearly undercharged, they were beautiful. Skyfire gently brushed his hand across Starscream’s face.

“I’m so glad you’re okay,” Skyfire said.

“I am, too,” Starscream said. “Everything’s going to be okay from here…”

He couldn’t help but carry on smiling. He’d managed it somehow. He was in a future that was completely different from the one he had seen. No matter what happened from here, he’d already proved that other Starscream wrong. There was no Megatron here, he was safe, and Skyfire was right by his side.

“Everything’s going to be okay,” Starscream repeated. “We have a whole new future ahead of us.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The end. I hope you all enjoyed it. It's been a joy to write this story.
> 
> Thanks especially to Hidden Director for all their proofreading and comments during the writing of this, which has been immensely encouraging and helpful all the way.
> 
>  
> 
> EDIT: HD was also lovely enough to write a follow up fic to this. Set during Starscream and Skyfire's time with the Autobots. It's very cute and fluffy and features bedtime stories and the Dinobots. Starscream deserves something nice happening to him after everything I put him through.  
> Do go read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15069698/chapters/35741994


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